President Draupadi Murmu has signed the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Union government’s long-discussed successor to the Telegraph Act of 1885 that has till now governed telecom services in India. Following the presidential assent, rules to enact different Sections of the Act will be required.
The Act largely leaves telecommunications law intact, while formalising certain practices like reserving spectrum bands for different purposes and instituting dispute resolution measures for conflicts between licensed service providers and the government. The Act also provides for newer ways for telecom operators to obtain permissions to set up their equipment in different States.
The main addition that has worried digital rights advocates is the potentially wide berth given to the term ‘telecommunications’ in the Bill, which doesn’t explicitly exclude online services such as email and messaging apps. This could allow the government in the future to impose stricter controls on messaging apps, activists had warned. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has since clarified that the government doesn’t intend to regulate online apps through the Act.
Also read: A word of advice on OTT and the draft telecom Bill
The law also settles the question on whether spectrum for satellite Internet should be auctioned or not. Neeraj Mittal, the Department of Telecommunications’ Secretary, told a gathering of MPs last week that it was not practical to auction satellite Internet spectrum, as it uses high frequency wavelengths that can be used by multiple users without much interference.
Net Neutrality
The telecommunications industry’s biggest firms — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio — welcomed the Act, but stopped short of celebrating it. There is no provision in the Telecommunications Act to allow for a ‘network usage fee’ to be paid by web firms to telecom operators, a demand that telcos argue is financially necessary but web firms have argued it violates the principles of Net Neutrality. Mr. Vaishnaw said in Parliament during the Winter Session that Net Neutrality was a “resolved issue,” indicating that the government isn’t seriously considering the demand.
While it is unclear when the Telecom Act’s subordinate rules will be prepared and notified, previous notifications — such as licences issued to telcos — remain valid, so telcos are not pressing for speed on that front. However, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, an entirely fresh legislation on online privacy, has not been notified at all, and rulemaking remains pending months after the law was passed in the Monsoon Session.
