13/10/2022 - Government Policies

KEY POINTS

·        It is indeed timely that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has released the draft Indian Telecommunications Bill 2022, replacing the age old Indian Telegraph Act of 1885.

Positive side

·        It is stated clearly that any revisions to the telecom policies, including licensing conditions and payment, will not have any retrospective effect. This provides certainty to the firms.

·        The need for verifiable identification of the calling party to be displayed to the receiver to limit the ubiquitous unsolicited commercial calls.

·        Bill recognises the optimal utilisation of radio spectrum for commercial mobile services and provides the way forward for spectrum trading.

·        This provides opportunities for the government to allocate spectrum using other methodologies such as administrative or beauty parade as applicable in specific use cases.

Criticisms

·        Though the policy makers have attempted to re-define telecommunication services to include all forms of digital communication including Over The Top (OTT) communication.

·        OTTs do not have the same type of exclusive privileges and access and hence they have not been regulated until now.

·        OTTs under a light touch regulation is needed due to their power in capturing and using Personal Information (PI) of the consumers.

·        The total absence of any modification to the role of the Telecommunications Regulatory of Authority of India (TRAI), except for cosmetic changes to the TRAI Act 1997. 

Kindly Review

Please review

Kindly review

Pls review