New Telecommunications Act cuts through bureaucracy, unleashes growth potential

The new Telecommunications Act replaces Indian Telegraph Act 1885, Wireless Telegraph Act 1933 and Telegraph Wires (unlawful possession Act) 1950. It deters anti competitive behaviour, promotes new technologies like 6G and encourages private sector investment. In this act provisions for Right of Way (ROW) are made stronger, provisions are made for Spectrum and this act facilitates ease of doing business. Strong provisions are incorporated for national security, public safety and public emergency. Provisions are there for privacy, data security and protection of users. It makes offences and penalties effective and reduces the disputes. Voluntary undertakings & adjudication and appeal mechanisms within the ministry are introduced for breach of terms and conditions of authorization.

This act promotes innovation and takes into account the technology changes in the sector. It has expanded the scope of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Now this fund will be called Digital Bharat Nidhi. This Nidhi will cover underserved urban areas also. This fund will also be utilised to promote R&D in telecom (5 per cent of funds will be utilised for this purpose) and for the introduction of pilot projects and new technologies.

In this act licence, registration and permission are replaced by authorisation, leading to ease of doing business. This Act replaces over hundred types of licences with authorisation. TRAI power has been expanded to regulate predatory pricing.

ROW provisions

Scope of public authority is widened in the act. Public authority shall permit ROW, except in rare cases. ROW in private properties is also allowed with mutual agreement. Grant of ROW will be non-discriminatory and non-exclusive. District Magistrate or any authority notified by Central government is given exclusive powers to resolve disputes and matters related to compensation shall be dealt by District Judge and their decisions will be final.

ROW permissions are to be granted within timelines which may be prescribed. Administrative expenses and compensation for ROW shall not exceed the prescribed amount.

The new act says that the telecom network installed on any property shall not be considered as part of such property including for levying property tax. It prohibits coercive actions by any public entity against Telecom Service providers except with the permission of an officer authorised by the central government or in case of natural disasters or public emergencies.

The new act provides that the property owner may request for the relocation of telecom networks laid on his property, if required. If compensation for damage was given to the property owner during initial installation, then the property owner has to bear the cost for relocation. Property owner has to give notice if any of his acts in dealing with his property is likely to cause damage to the telecom network. Telecom network details and precautionary measures to be undertaken are to be informed to the property owner by the telecom service provider. As per the new act, the central government may notify infrastructure projects that may require establishment of common ducts for installation of telecom networks.

Security provisions

The Central government may notify standards for telecom equipment, network, identifiers; telecom services; production, import, export, sale; telecom/cybersecurity & encryption & data processing.

On the occurrence of any public emergency, the central/state government can take temporary possession of any telecom service and ensure that messages of a user authorised for response and recovery during a public emergency are routed on priority. The central/ state government can direct that any message shall not be transmitted or shall be disclosed in intelligent format to the officer mentioned in such order. The press messages, intended to be published in India of accredited correspondents shall not be intercepted, unless their transmission has been prohibited under relevant clauses.

The central government may issue directions insisting for the procurement of telecom equipment only from trusted sources. It can suspend the use of specified telecom equipment from countries, as may be notified.

The central government may collect, analyse and disseminate traffic data of telecom networks. It may declare any telecom network as critical infrastructure and provide for the standards for such critical telecom infrastructure. It may direct any authorised entity to transmit in its telecom network specific messages.

The central government may, for the purpose of encouraging innovation, create regulatory sandboxes. Live testing environment will be available in these sandboxes

Protection of users

For the protection of users, the central government may rule that the prior consent of the user is required for receiving certain specified messages. There will be a mechanism to report by the user, the receipt of specified messages in contravention. The service provider shall establish an online grievance registering and redressal mechanism in this regard.

SIMs will be issued only through verifiable biometric identification to avoid fraudulent SIMs in the network. User shall not furnish any false particulars while establishing his identity. The central government may establish an online dispute redressal mechanism for the resolution of disputes between users and service providers.

Spectrum Provisions

Spectrum assignment is through auction except for entries listed in the schedule 1 for which assignment shall be done by administrative process. The schedule 1 includes national security and defence, law enforcement, public broadcasting, disaster management, meteorological department, use by central/state governments, maritime connectivity, space research, BSNL/ MTNL etc., and where auction of spectrum is not the preferred mode of assignment due to technical or economic reasons (like satellite services).

This act enables more efficient use of spectrum, refarming or harmonising any frequency range. It enables the utilisation of the spectrum in a flexible, liberalised and technologically neutral manner. To promote optimal use of the spectrum, a particular part of the spectrum which has already been assigned to an entity (primary assignee) can be assigned to one or more additional entities (secondary assignees). Any assigned spectrum which has remained unutilised for insufficient reasons, can be terminated. Provision is made for sharing, trading, leasing and surrender of assigned spectrum. No person shall possess or use any equipment that blocks telecommunication (e.g. jammers) unless permitted by the central government.

Way forward

The provision of allocation of spectrum for satellite broadband services through administrative process has finally brought down the curtain for the heated debate on auction vis-a-vis administrative process for the allocation of spectrum. TRAI has conducted an elaborate consultation process with all the stakeholders in this regard before this law was introduced in the Parliament. Now TRAI has to fix the price of spectrum for the allocation through the administrative process for satellite based broadband services.

The provisions in ROW, facilitate sharing of towers, roof tops (for roof top towers) and premises (for ground based towers) among the telecom service providers. This will lead to avoidance of unnecessary duplication of precious resources.

Detailed rules will be formulated, in consultation with the stakeholders, before this act is implemented. Though in the act, specifically Aadhaar based verification is not mentioned and only ‘verifiable biometric identification’ is mentioned for issue of SIMs, perhaps the rules that will be framed will bring clarity in this regard. OTT players will not come under the ambit of this act. Hope this new act will streamline the telecom sector and accelerate the process to ‘connect the unconnected.’