• The Indian Telecommunications Bill 2022, which will replace the antiquated Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, was recently issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
• Yet, despite the fact that technology has advanced rapidly over the past ten years, the Bill unfortunately lacks a vision for the future.

Need for the Indian Telecommunications Bill 2022

• It is an attempt by the government to update the extant regulatory framework in keeping with the advancements and challenges in the sector.
• This was much needed given that the three main legislations that occupy this domain are considerably outdated.
• These legislations are the Indian Telegraph Act enacted in 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act enacted in 1933 and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful) Possession Act in 1950.
• Current bill looks to repeal these legislations and “restructure the legal and regulatory framework” for the telecommunications sector.

The bill proposes

• In terms of users’ safety and security, it aims to enable a legal framework to prevent the harassment of users from unauthenticated sources.
• It establishes that the prior consent of the user is necessary before offering any promotional services or advertisement.
• This would allow many customers to stop receiving spam calls and texts, as India is already one of the worst affected countries by these types of communications.
• The bill provides for the right of appeal before the appellate authority.
• Besides, the central government is also enabled to set up an alternate dispute resolution mechanism which can range from mediation, arbitration, etc.
• It assigns unwavering power to the central government.
• It proposes to replace the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) with the Telecommunication Development Fund (TDF).
• While the USOF Fund has been primarily used to aid rural connectivity.
• The TDF aims to boost connectivity in underserved urban regions, skill development, etc.

Positive Side of the bill

• As per the bill, any changes to the telecom policies, including the terms for licence and payment, will not apply retroactively. This gives the businesses certainty.
• To reduce the omnipresent unwanted commercial calls, the bill allows calling party''s verifiable identification to be displayed to the recipient.
• The Bill identifies the best use of radio spectrum for commercial mobile services and lays out the future for technology-neutral spectrum trading, sharing, leasing, and repurposing.
• It is the opening up of an alternative method for allocating radio spectrum to auctions.
• This gives the government the chance to distribute spectrum using several approaches such as administrative or beauty parade allocation when appropriate for particular use cases.
• A beauty parade is a synonym for a formal presentation given to a panel in response to a request for tender.
• The name is an ironic reference to the beauty pageant, suggesting that the tenderer may choose a company for reasons other than important facts.
• It gives the recognition of telecommunication facility providers and the associated Right of Way (RoW) enablement for the laying down of the passive infrastructure.

Negative Side of the bill

No clarity on OTT communication and broadcasting services

• The Bill fails to provide clarity on whether Over The Top (OTT) services should be regulated on par with mobile network operators (MNOs).
• There is still a debate on whether the OTT services complement or substitute the services such as voice telephony and Short Message Service offered by the MNOs.
• MNOs are licensed and are often under stringent regulation due to their exclusive access to radio spectrum and Right of Way for
• Laying down their infrastructure such as optic fibre and towers.
• Access to Universal Service Fund for providing connectivity to the non-profitable rural areas of the country.
• OTTs do not have the same type of exclusive privileges and access and hence they have not been regulated until now.
• By regulating OTTs on par with MNOs with similar terms and conditions including heavy licensing is a serious problem.  The Bill fails to address these differences.

Absence of any modification to the role of TRAI

• 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.

Centre’s overarching power

• The bill provides overarching power to the centre to regulate all aspects of telecommunications in the interest of national security.
• This comes without appropriate safeguards including the designation of authorities who can issue such orders.

Suggestions

• The government must provide the much-needed autonomy both financially as well as administrative to TRAI.
• There is need to bring OTTs under mild control due to their power in capturing and using Personal Information of the consumers, and exhibiting near monopoly in several markets.
• OTTs should be different from that of the MNOs which span across areas such as data and privacy protection, consumer protection, content moderation etc.
• There is a need to clearly indicate the precautionary measures and processes to reduce possible misuse of centre’s overreaching powers.
• Granular level of details regarding sanctions and penalties in the Bill for deviating conduct of the service providers should be prescribed in the subsequent regulations and rules.

The purview of the Bill should be widened to include the recently emerging digital communications industry, and TRAI’s role should be strengthened to allow for effective coordination with other relevant regulators, such as the soon-to-be-established Data Protection Authority and Consumer Protection Authority.