The rules governing the Telecom Act, 2013, which partially came into effect from Wednesday, will be brought out in the next six months, senior sources at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said. Without the rules in place, many of the provisions of the Act cannot be properly implemented at the moment, they added.
Case in point, inter-ministerial consultations with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will decide on the rules for the interception and detaining of messages. Sections 1, 2, 10 to 30, 42 to 44, 46, 47, 50 to 58, 61, and 62 of the Act, which was passed by Parliament in December last year, were enforced from June 26.
Crucially, Section 20 (2) of the Act allows the government to stop the transmission of any message in the interest of public safety and during a public emergency or intercept and detain any message. The same section allows the Centre or State governments to take temporary possession of any telecom service or network during a public emergency, including disaster management, or in the interest of public safety.
Relevant sections dealing with updated rules for the Right of Way, both on public and private property, have also come into force. The Act has broadened the definition of public entities to include government agencies, local bodies, and public-private partnership projects like airports, seaports, and highways. In a key move, the government can now grant permission to telcos to install mobile towers or lay telecom cables on private properties, even if the landowner objects if government officials believe such work is necessary.
The DoT is also working on notifying many of the provisions of the Act which have not come into effect yet. This includes the administrative allocation of spectrum and a leaner dispute settlement mechanism.
Satellite or orbit is a segment of the radio spectrum made available when satellites are placed into orbit. A debate over whether the scarce resource should be auctioned or allocated by the government has raged on for the last few years. But the Telecommunications Act, 2023, has included satellite-based services in a list of 19 sectors where the Centre has the right to administratively allocate spectrum, thereby ending the debate which had split the telecom industry.
The DoT is working to quickly frame the Terms of Reference for satellite spectrum allocation so that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) can begin its consultations with industry stakeholders. Officials said it will clarify the methodology of allocation, the frequencies to be used, the pricing of spectrum, and the terms and conditions to be met by satellite operators with regards to national security.
