President Draupadi Murmu has signed the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Union government’s long-discussed successor to the Telegraph Act of 1885 that has till now governed telecom services in India. Following the presidential assent, rules to enact different Sections of the Act will be required.
The Act largely leaves telecommunications law intact, while formalising certain practices like reserving spectrum bands for different purposes and instituting dispute resolution measures for conflicts between licensed service providers and the government. The Act also provides for newer ways for telecom operators to obtain permissions to set up their equipment in different States.
The main addition that has worried digital rights advocates is the potentially wide berth given to the term ‘telecommunications’ in the Bill, which doesn’t explicitly exclude online services such as email and messaging apps. This could allow the government in the future to impose stricter controls on messaging apps, activists had warned. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has since clarified that the government doesn’t intend to regulate online apps through the Act.
