Editorial – January 2024

The telecom industry and all who observe and track it are waiting for the gazette notifications of The Telecommunication Act, 2023. It is industry friendly, futuristic and predicated on the ease of doing business. But there are ambiguities too related to the status of OTTs such as WhatsApp, Telegram and others. The dust on this will settle only after the Act is notified and its implementations begins.

The Act has several major features. Following the Supreme Court judgement in the 2G scam case, the government could allocate spectrum through the auction route only. This will soon be legacy. The Act permits allocation through non-auction route or the administrative route and this list has been specified in the first schedule of the Act. The change in spectrum allocation is the biggest takeaway from the Act. Infact to preempt any possible legal challenge, the government has filed an application before the Supreme Court praying for allowing administrative assignment of spectrum on grounds of public interest and economic viability.

Other spectrum related provisions include – allocation of the same spectrum frequency to multiple applicants on non-interference basis, government can take back unutilized spectrum before permit expiry with no refund of fee paid.

End user verification has been made stringent with biometric process and steep penalties and/or imprisonment for falsifying information. The Internet Associations have got riled up with this; they say, if applied to Internet services this will be destructive of anonymity online. These internet industry bodies have also opposed government’s powers over encryption and have stated it is technically impossible to create secure end-to-end encrypted environment while creating access for law enforcement. However, these provisions are not unique to India and certain undefined interception powers with governments are operable in advanced democracies also.

HR reform has been brought about in the regulatory structure also. Corporate bigwigs can take a shot at becoming Trai chairman and those with proven boardroom excellence can become Trai members. Layers have been added in the adjudicatory process at the pre-TDSAT level. Senior officers will hold these positions with powers to remedy, levy penalties and make recommendations related to authorizations (the nomenclature for telecom licenses, under the Act).