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.