Teaching Handout on Telecommunications Law

1. DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Telecom services have metamorphosed into an integral part of our society. In present times, the
socio-economic growth of a nation is largely dependent upon the smooth and effective functioning
of its telecom industry. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) is a branch of the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology. It lies at the topmost level in the hierarchy of the
telecom services sector. Since the time of its inception, DoT has been instrumental in drafting
developmental policies for the accelerated growth of the Telecom services. At present, the DoT is
essentially performing the role of a policy maker and licensor. The National Telecom Policy, 1994,
1999 and the more recent 2012, are few of the major contributions made by DoT for the purpose of
transformation of the Indian Telecom sector.

1.1 ROLE OF POLICY MAKER

As a policy maker, DoT has formulated the National telecom policy, 1994, 1999 and 2012. A brief
description of the objectives of each of them is highlighted hereunder

1.1.1 NATIONAL TELECOM POLICY, 1994

The NTP 1994 came into force after the formulation of the New Economic Policy in 1991. NEP 1991
aimed at providing telecom services of unparallel quality to all the Indian subscribers at competitive
rates. The success of this policy was underlined in the growth of telecom sector in India.

The key features of NTP 1994 are as follows:

• Easy accessibility of telecom services and availability of telephone on demand.

• Universal Service Coverage in rural areas providing basic access to telecom services at affordable
and reasonable prices.

• Improving the quality of telecom services, redressal of public grievances and effective dispute
resolution.

• To ensure that India emerges as a major manufacturing base and major exporter of telecom
equipment.

• To protect the defence and security interests of the country.

1.1.2 NATIONAL TELECOM POLICY, 1999

Since NTP 1994 was not able to fulfil its objectives adequately, the policy makers felt the need for a
more exhaustive legislation. Hence, the National Telecom Policy, 1999 came into force. It was
formulated to appreciate the far reaching developments in the telecom, IT, consumer electronics
and media industries worldwide. Congregation of telephone and broadcasting industries, separate
licensing systems for basic, cellular, ISPs, satellite and cable TV operators, postulated a
transformation of the existing policy framework. NTP 1999 envisioned India to become an IT
superpower having a world-class telecom infrastructure.

The key features of NTP 1999 are as follows:

• Access to telecom services at reasonable and affordable rates, development of telecom facilities in
all uncovered areas, comprising of rural, remote, hilly and tribal areas.

• To create a modern telecom infrastructure in harmony with convergence of IT, media, telecom and
consumer electronics.

• Convert PCOs, wherever justified, into Public Teleinfo centres having multimedia capability like
ISDN services, remote database access, government and community information systems etc.

• To create a competitive environment in both rural as well as urban areas, providing equal
opportunities and level playing field for all players.

• To improve R&D facilities for building enhanced manufacturing capabilities.

• To achieve transparency and efficacy in spectrum allocation and management.

• To protect the defence and security concerns of the nation.

• To enable Indian telecom companies to become truly global players.

1.1.3 BROADBAND POLICY, 2004

Broadband is a wide bandwidth transmission medium, capable of transmitting multiple signals and
traffic types concurrently. It can be in form of copper wire, optical fibre or wireless. It is a means of
ensuring faster connectivity over an integrated services network. In the modern era, communal
changes led to the advent of applications such as tele education, tele-medicine, e-governance, etc.
These changes brought about an enhancement in the quality of life of the entire human civilization.
The Indian Government also felt the need of providing high speed access to information and web-
based communication. Consequently, the Government formulated a policy to accelerate the growth
of broadband services and reach out to all the netizens. It is noteworthy that the demand for
Broadband is primarily mobilized by Internet and PC penetration. This approach was held as the
basis of this policy. It was projected that by the end of 2010, the estimated growth of internet and
broadband subscribers would reach 40 million and 20 million respectively. According to a report of
the World Telecom Industry (2011), India is expected to have approximately 1200 billion subscribers
by 2013. The Broadband policy created infrastructure of telecommunication through various access
technologies comprising of Optical fibre technologies, Digital Subscriber Lines on copper loop, Cable
TV Network, Satellite Media, Terrestrial Wireless, etc.

1.1.4 NATIONAL TELECOM POLICY, 2012

The need of the hour is equitable and inclusive economic growth. India is moving ahead in the global
telecom market. The National Telecom Policy 2012 was thus encapsulated to adopt such
telecommunication technologies which would offer viable options in subjugating developmental
challenges in the field of education, health and employment generation. NTP 2012 strives to ensure
an investor friendly environment thereby attracting domestic as well as foreign investors. Currently,
there is 74% investor friendly environment thereby attracting domestic as well as foreign investors.
Currently, there is 74% FDI in the Indian telecom sector. The core objective of this policy is to
provide affordable and effective communication facilities to all the citizens.

The key objectives of NTP 2012 are as follows:

• To provide broadband on demand by 2015 to all citizens and businesses in both rural and urban
areas, and participate in internet and web economy. It also aims to achieve 175 million broadband
connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed
and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.

• To support platform neutral services in e-governance and m-governance in key social sectors such
as health, education and agriculture.

• To address and enable the coordinated action to respond to the dynamic needs resulting from
confluence of telecom, broadcasting and IT sectors.

• To incorporate framework for enhancing spectrum availability, comprising of triple play services
(voice, video and data) using broadband technology.

• Common Service Centres, AADHAR based electronic authentication framework and Cloud
computing enabled.

• To provide clear cut strategies to overcome challenges in network and communication security and
communication assistance to law enforcement agencies.

• To recognize and reinforce the role of PSUs in proving telecom services in rural areas and
broadband penetration in the country.

• To further empower the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a backbone of policy
implementation.

• To recognize the need of robust and resilient telecom networks for mitigating any kind of natural
or manmade calamities.

• To recognize the futuristic role of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) and its application in different
sectors of Indian economy.

• Increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by
the year 2020.

• Create a corpus to promote indigenous R&D, IPR creation, entrepreneurship, manufacturing,

commercialization and deployment of state-of-the-art telecom products and services during the
12th five year plan period.

• To meet Indian telecom sector demand to the extent of 60% and 80% with a minimum value
addition of 45% and 65% by the year 2017 and 2020 respectively.
• To simplify the licensing framework and create a one nation – one license policy across service and
service areas.

• To achieve full mobile portability throughout India work towards free roaming.

• To reinvent mobile communication so as to provide proof of identity, full financial security, multi-
lingual services, high quality seamless voice, data, multimedia and broadcasting services, fixed-
mobile convergence.

• To make available additional 300 MHz spectrum for IMT services by the year 2017 and another 200
MHz by 2020.

• To provide for regular audit of spectrum usage, de-licensing additional frequency bands for public
use, address the Right of Way (RoW) issues in setting up of telecom infrastructure, setting up of a
common platform for interconnection of various networks for providing non-exclusive and non-
discriminatory access.

• To enhance and continue adoption of green policy in telecom and incentivize use of renewable
energy sources for sustainability.

LICENSOR under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Central Government has exclusive jurisdiction
to authorize and maintain telecom services in India and to grant licenses to various service
operators. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), a part of the Ministry of Communications
and Information Technology, Government of India, acts as a licensor. It also does the task of
formulating and enforcing telecom policies. It allocates and administers resources such as spectrum
and series number. The DoT also promotes modernization and harmonization, R&D, private and
foreign investment, and international cooperation in the matters relating to telecommunication
services. The Wireless Planning and Coordination wing of DoT, is responsible for frequency spectrum
management and exercises the statutory functions of the Central Government to issue licenses for
allotment of spectrum and for establishing, maintaining and operating wireless stations.