Broadband body: Telecom bill hurts Trai independence, OTT move to hit innovation

Big tech companies and satellite players have voiced misgivings about the draft telecom bill, saying it threatens to rob the regulator of its statutory independence, make it subservient to the government and is also hazy on the future allocation mode of satellite spectrum.

Such a scenario, they warned, could jolt the country’s telecom regulatory framework, push back the sector to the pre-1997 era and hinder big-ticket investments.

The Broadband India Forum (BIF), which counts tech biggies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Cisco, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook-owner Meta, Qualcomm, OneWeb and Hughes among its key members, is also dismayed by the draft telecom bill’s goal of bringing OTT players within the ambit of telecom law and licensing.