Due to concerns over possible dilution of powers of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022, the government is mulling removal of provisions related to the regulator from the bill and introduction of a separate bill later to strengthen the regulatory body
BY B. SHEKHAR
When it comes to the telecommunications sector, India is on a par with First World infrastructure. With the launch of 5G services, the Indian telecom sector has just proved that it has seamlessly established the requisite infrastructure to service the masses, although the penetration is too low considering the population spread. This is an area of serious concern for Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).
Overall, India’s telecom industry had around 116 crore wireless subscribers at the close of June 2022, growing 0.16 percent month-on-month. Of these, 625.49 million were urban, while 521.90 million were rural subscribers. As such, 54.51 percent of the country’s total telecom users live in urban areas and 45.49 percent in rural areas. Though the telecom sector is just about two decades old, it is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent.
The Union Cabinet approved a ₹12,195 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom and networking products under the Department of Telecom (DoT). In October 2021, 31 companies comprising 16 MSMEs and 15 non-MSMEs (eight domestic and seven global companies) were approved under the PLI scheme. To drive the development of 6G technology, DoT has developed a sixth generation (6G) innovation group. By 2025, India will need more than 22 million skilled workers in 5G-centric technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and cloud computing.
The open-ended and pro-reform policies of the government have been instrumental in the rapid growth of the Indian telecom sector along with strong consumer demand. The government has enabled easy market access to telecom equipment and a fair and proactive regulatory framework that has ensured availability of telecom services to the consumer at affordable prices as compared to any other Bretton Woods nation.
The deregulation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms has also substantially boosted the sector to grow at a faster pace and it is currently among the top five employment opportunity generators in the country.
Though the telecom sector is in the pink of health, a slew of policy issues still bog down this industry vertical. Considering that this sector needs policy reforms, the Government of India has introduced a draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022—open for comments from the public until November 20, 2022—which basically seeks to radically redefine the very structure of the policy and practices with an objective to bridging the gaps so as to seamlessly integrate with global standards.
The draft bill 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, with the most recent of them having been enacted more than 70 years ago. 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, enacted in 1950. The Indian Telecommunication Bill looks to repeal these legislations and “restructure the legal and regulatory framework” for the telecommunications sector.
One of the key reforms proposed under the Telecom Bill is that it deal with an iron hand on perpetrators of cybercrime with a ₹50,000 fine and suspension of operation of the specific mobile number or barring of the person from using the telecom service for a certain duration. A conservative figure estimates that over ₹1,000 crore is siphoned off by fraudsters using cyber space every year. The draft bill also proposes that the identity of the person communicating, using any form of telecommunication services, shall be available to the user receiving such communication. This would mean that unlike now where only the phone number of the person making the communication is displayed, going forward the name of the person would also be displayed.
Further, the draft bill also provides that commercial communications which are advertisements and promotional in nature, should be made only with the prior consent of a subscriber. This provision in itself plugs cybercrime substantially.
In the wake of recent violence in the country by using social media to intentionally spread fake news, a very hardhitting reform has been proposed in the bill—that of shutting off internet services. For the first time in Indian legal framework, a specific provision enabling the government to order suspension of internet connectivity has been proposed through the draft bill. Currently, suspension of internet services is ordered under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency and Public Safety) Rules, 2017 that have been drawn up under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
However, since the draft bill was placed in the public domain, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which is currently the supreme telecom authority, has objected to several provisions as it feels that its powers are being confiscated or completely truncated.
The draft bill has proposed 13 changes to the TRAI Act, which could greatly reduce the powers of the watchdog.
The Broadband India Forum (BIF) opines that the amendments might undermine TRAI and dilute its powers within the telecom sector and thus require a critical review. “The Draft Telecom Bill provisions propose to take away TRAI’s statutory independence and seek to make it subservient to the Government,” feels the industry body.
However, the good news is that following the concerns over the possible dilution of powers of TRAI in the proposed policy, the government is mulling the removal of provisions related to the regulator from the bill. It is thinking of introducing a separate bill to strengthen the regulatory body at a later stage.
“DoT has had discussions with TRAI and all the concerns were addressed. Everyone agreed that the intent was good…. There are no differences between DoT and TRAI now. All issues have been resolved,” sources revealed.
Further, it was said the government wants to strengthen TRAI to bring it on a par with bodies such as the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the UK’s Ofcom, with highly technical people and powers to impose penalties, among other things.
India is the world’s second largest telecommunications market with a subscriber base of 1.16 billion and has registered strong growth in the past decade. It surpassed the US to become the second largest market in terms of number of app downloads. The Indian telecom and networking economy is growing rapidly and will contribute substantially to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Over the next five years, rise in telecom penetration and decline in end-user tariffs will add 500 million new internet users in India, creating opportunities for new businesses. And the principal objective of the proposed new policy is to provide strong and vibrant policy reforms to enable this sector to grow at a much faster rate and be on a par with global benchmarks.
The telecom sector in India has to deal with various challenges like maintaining a sufficient spectrum and adopting new technologies faster to be able to use the new features and techniques to serve customers with better and feature-rich service.
The draft bill addresses these challenges and is open to discussion which would lead to a comprehensive policy regarding the future of telecommunications in India.
(The writer is a Bengaluru-based business journalist associated with IMS Foundation.)