Regulators, policymakers should predict innovation-led disruptions: TRAI

Regulators and policymakers should proactively follow technological developments, predict innovation-led disruptions and manage them effectively and constructively, at a day and age where new generation of mobile communication will be seen in less than 10 years, TRAI Chairman PD Vaghela said on Friday.

The role of regulators should be to create a facilitating, flexible, adaptive and light-touch regulatory ecosystem, which is based on the cardinal principle of forbearance, Vaghela noted.

"We are in that age, where we will see a new generation of mobile communication in less than 10 years. For example, 5G is not even deployed fully and there is already a buzz of 6G technology," the TRAI chief said addressing India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2021 event.

The regulators and policymakers should proactively follow the technological development, predict the innovation-led disruptions and manage the disruptions effectively and constructively, he said.

An enabling regulatory environment would help the nation seize the opportunity arising out of technology disruptions, and convert the disruptions into benefits for the industry, consumers and the economy, he asserted.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is bringing out a consultation paper on regulatory framework for promoting data economy, he informed.

"This is very critical for India to play an important role in the digital economy. This consultation paper will deal with, among other aspects, establishment of data centers, content delivery networks and interconnected exchanges," he said.

Through the paper, TRAI wants to examine how India can be a significant player in the data economy by removing bottlenecks, if any, and incentivizing establishment of data centers, Vaghela added.

Vaghela further said 5G will transform every sector of the economy, and this combined with other technologies such as Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning has the potential for major societal and economic transformation by enabling massive expansion of digital products and services across various sectors. This includes industries, commerce, education, healthcare, agriculture, financial and fintech services amongst others.

"Thus 5G will provide an opportunity to create a purpose-built network tailored to the different needs and can propel the growth of the nation," Vaghela said.