Telecommunications Bill, passed in Rajya Sabha, awaits presidential assent
The Telecommunications Bill, 2023, which was passed by Rajya Sabha on Thursday, will replace the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 and the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1933
NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha passed the Telecommunications Bill, 2023, through a voice vote on Thursday after a 70-minute debate in the absence of most Opposition members. The Bill seeks to reform and simplify the regulatory and licensing regime for telecommunications, remove bottlenecks in creating telecom infrastructure, protect users from spam and fraudulent calls, and create a four-tiered structure for dispute resolution.
The bill will replace the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 and the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1933.
Communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that it was a historic day when three laws that had a “colonial mindset” were being scrapped – a reference to the criminal code were passed by the Upper House later in the day.
“This bill has been formulated with today’s requirements, with today’s economic needs and with today’s aspirations in mind,” Vaishnaw said while replying to the discussion in Upper House.
Industry associations such as the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Broadband India Forum (BIF) welcomed the bill but multiple MPs and civil society members expressed concerns about three main issues: ambiguity around the inclusion of online communication services in the definition of telecommunication services; biometrics-based user verification norms; and continuation of sweeping interceptions and service suspension powers.
Biju Janata Dal’s Amar Patnaik said, “The debate between traceability and anonymity has been there for a long time. Anonymity is important but it can’t be absolute. For national security concerns, anonymity must take a back seat.”
BJP’s Dhananjay Bhimrao Mahadik said, “This bill omits or excludes OTT (Over-the-top media) services. There is a need to bring them under regulation because we have no control over them or their content…I think there should be an Act for OTTs.”
Responding to the comments by MPs, Vaishnaw reiterated the key points of the bill. “First, to prevent people from fraudulently getting SIMs and to prevent them from using a device like a SIM box, we have made provisions to ensure that no one can get a SIM without KYC,” he said. The second is right-of-way reforms to allow telecom infrastructure to be laid down.
Third is on licenses – more than 100 have been replaced with a single authorisation which will be done in simple language, he said.
On the spectrum, he said, “We have included a legal and thought-through process that conforms with the Supreme Court judgement and the constitutional bench’s presidential reference on spectrum.”
The fifth highlight is the digital-by-design, four-tier dispute resolution framework. He explained that this was created to enable people to “submit a voluntary undertaking for small mistakes they make instead of going to the courts every time. Many [court] disputes will end because of this”.
“Sixth, we have now instituted a legal framework for standards for cybersecurity and protection of telecom networks,” he said. “Today, during a war or a national security incident, the first attack is always on the telecom networks. Telecom networks are critical infrastructure for the nation which must continue to work no matter what,” he said.
He assured that the interception of telecom networks by the Centre and state governments would continue to be done according to the Supreme Court’s guidelines.
“Through the Digital Bharat Nidhi, we are focussing on the saturation of telecom infrastructure, and development of new technologies and products. We are funding 19 schemes including 6G test beds through this,” he said.
“We have provided a regulatory sandbox for innovation and technology development. This will allow people to use the spectrum to innovate in a restricted setting in a legal way,” Vaishnaw said. A regulatory sandbox refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment.
BJD MP Patnaik said there were regulatory sandboxes in SEBI and RBI but many of them were not functioning. “The sandbox approach is a very nice approach, but the only thing is that it should be made operational and if required, some allocation of funds should be made for this purpose,” he said.
“500 experiments are going on right now [through the sandbox]. After this Bill is enacted, they will get legal backing,” Vaishnaw replied.
“This is a very big industry. There are 40 lakh people employed in the telecom sector. We have taken care to ensure that there is no disruption in this industry,” Vaishnaw added.
Patnaik said that for biometric-based verification of users, the private sector will be involved. “Thus, citizens’ privacy could be compromised. While the private sector will be covered by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the minister should address this issue in the rules,” he said.
“In the Bill, it has been stated that telecommunication may be intercepted on specified grounds including security of the state, public order, or prevention of offences. Telecom services may be suspended on similar grounds. These provisions will be a serious breach of privacy of individuals. Right to privacy has been upheld by the apex court in the Puttuswamy case,” Telugu Desam Party’s Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar said.
YSRCP’s S. Niranjan Reddy also asked the government to come up with clear guidelines for interception in national interest. “Since we have said that we are going to entrust this to administrative oversight, I’d like to request the minister to ensure that the guidelines and the quality of the oversight committee are sufficiently strong so that it takes care of all interests of the users,” he said.
A group of international and Indian groups outside continued to oppose the bill and asked Vaishnaw to withdraw it over concerns that it will jeopardise people’s privacy and pose a threat to end-to-end encryption. “The Bill in its current form poses a grave threat to fundamental rights, democracy, and the internet as we know it, and must be withdrawn and altered in order to remove these flaws,” the letter said.
Signatories to the letter include the Internet Freedom Foundation and Centre for Internet and Society, international groups such as the Internet Society and Access Now, and technology entities such as Mozilla and Signal Foundation, apart from encrypted service providers such as Proton and Tuta.
People familiar with the matter said the Bill could be sent for presidential assent this week.