Govt may introduce draft Telecommunications Bill in Parliament this week

Officials say the draft bill has received cabinet clearance

The government may introduce the draft Telecommunications Bill in Parliament this week.

The draft received final clearance from the government at a Cabinet meeting attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, officials confirmed on Saturday.

Released by the department of telecommunications (DoT) in September last year, the Bill has been in the news for its ambitious overhauling of India’s telecom regulatory ecosystem. The Bill also talks about the regulation of privacy, competition in the sector, jobs and investment, consumer protection and technology.

Replacing three laws — namely the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950, the new Bill will spell out the government’s role in telecom services and networks, telecom equipment and infrastructure, and spectrum and its assignment.

The government has argued that it wants to ease the regulatory framework, improve the scope for innovation in the industry and focus on user protection.

OTT and satellites

The draft Bill extends the definition of telecom services to include over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp, Signal, Zoom, Skype, Google, and Telegram, which provide (voice or video) calling and messaging services.

These Internet-based service providers will be subject to similar rules as other telecom companies.

The definition was amended after telecom service providers such as Airtel and Reliance Jio said they require a level-playing field as OTT communications. 

And that, satellite-based services offer audio and video calls and messaging without paying for licence or spectrum.

Officials had told Business Standard that the government only intends to bring specific OTT services aimed at communications under the draft Bill, and not all apps with OTT embedded in them.

Another key area in the draft has been the government’s efforts to bring satellite-based communication services into the fold of telecom services, giving the government exclusive rights to use, allocate and assign spectrum for it.

Apart from Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, most major industry players, including Airtel-backed Oneweb, Tata group company Nelco, Tesla’s Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Telesat have argued that allocating sparse satellite resources will restrict the field to just one or two players. It would thus affect the Digital India roadmap of providing broadband to the masses.

Meanwhile, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has asked the telecom department to not regulate the fast-advancing sector.

Officials had earlier told Business Standard that the government is looking to explicitly differentiate between satellite waves and terrestrial spectrum, but may not regulate the former for now.

Cause for controversy

The draft Bill had proposed granting the government the ability to intercept messages in “the event of any public emergency or in the interest of public safety.” It also provides the authorities immunity against any lawsuit.

The government may also have the power to terminate auction allocations partly or in full.  This is in case it determines that the spectrum that has been assigned has remained unutilised for 

insufficient reasons for a prescribed period.

Meanwhile, DoT has not heeded to companies’ appeal to discontinue or suspend the USO Fund levy.

The government had set it up to take mobile and Internet connectivity to rural areas — until the unutilised surplus cash of around Rs 60,000 crore is used. 

The draft instead merely changed the levy’s name to the telecommunications development fund, giving it powers beyond just taking telecom services to the underserved rural and suburban areas.

Delhi Services Bill listed in RS for discussion today

The Centre has listed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill and the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill for discussion on Monday in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, respectively. Ensuring that the Lok Sabha passes the data protection Bill on Monday itself would be necessary since the House will take up the no-confidence motion from Tuesday to Thursday and adjourn sine die on Friday. The Opposition has said it will demand that the Speaker restore Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's membership to the Lok Sabha after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case. 

 Archis Mohan