Telecom Bill revisits licence raj, impinges on privacy safeguards

Many global agencies have raised concern that the draft Bill will adversely impact privacy by giving DoT almost unlimited powers to access and endlessly demand all manner of private information

The draft Telecommunication Bill, 2022, which was released for public comment last month, was meant to revamp archaic laws, some of them over a century old, and make the telecom sector “future-ready”. Instead, stakeholders — telecom companies (telcos), digital app players, broadcasters, direct-to-home service providers, and over-the-top (OTT) services — fear that the scope of the Bill goes far beyond telecom issues and points to the return of the Licence Raj under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
 

Telcos are concerned that apart from weakening the consultative role of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the draft vests DoT, which