Draft telecom Bill

Having unveiled the draft Indian Telecom Bill 2022, the government has sought suggestions from the public to give final shape to this vital legislation for regulating operations in the digital world. The Bill has been necessitated by the need for ‘a legal framework attuned to the realities of the 21st century’ instead of the colonial-era Indian Telegraph Act which has been serving as the basis of the regulatory setup for the telecommunication sector. The importance of this sector can’t be overestimated: it has a subscriber base of over 117 crore and contributes about 8 per cent of India’s GDP.

The government intends to broaden the definition of ‘telecom services’ by including OTT (over the top), Internet-based and satellite-based communication services within their purview. The implication is that social media apps such as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, which provide calling and messaging services, may require licences to operate in the country. It’s the restrictive and preventive measures that require a thorough debate among the stakeholders. The Bill proposes that messages ‘shall not be transmitted, or shall be intercepted or disclosed’ to the authorised officer, in case of ‘a public emergency or in the interests of public safety, sovereignty, integrity or security of India, public order, or to prevent incitement to an offence.’ The lone exemption from interception is for ‘press messages that are intended to be published in India’ of government-accredited correspondents. This potentially leaves the field wide open for invasion of privacy, besides manipulation and misuse of the law by the authorities. The Bill must incorporate safeguards to ensure that an individual’s privacy, declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court, is protected at all costs.

Another key factor is the prospect of OTT service providers, once they become licensed entities, having to share their revenue with the government, even as there is a proposal to waive their fees and penalty. Parting with a sizeable portion of the moolah and subjecting themselves to regulation and scrutiny — these will be the twin challenges for the big players. The focus should be on fine-tuning the law judiciously to protect privacy while generating revenue for the government.