Telecom Bill 2022

According to the draft of the Indian Telecom Bill 2022, keeping in mind the interest of customers, telecom companies will be stopped from doing arbitrary. For this, the government can completely remove the fees, penalties, and other service charges of telecom companies. 

The Indian Telecom Department has made a public announcement of the draft of the proposed Indian Telecom Bill 2022. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought suggestions from the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) on the framework of the bill by October 20.

According to the proposed bill, it has been proposed to change the definition of over-the-top (OTT) and bring them under telecom licence. 

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Government will remove service charge

This draft has been issued to make the telecom sector global competitive. Accordingly, it is also possible to decide on spectrum allocation or auction if needed. Also, keeping in mind the interest of the customers, the telecom companies will be stopped from doing arbitrariness.

For this, the government can completely remove the fees, penalties, and other service charges of telecom companies. 

Focus on changing the definition of OTT

According to the new draft bill of the Department of Telecom, it has been proposed to change the definition of over-the-top (OTT) and bring it under the telecom license.

That is, internet calling and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Skype as well as all internet based calling apps will come under license fee. 

Opinion was sought even before TRAI

Let us tell you that only last month, the Department of Telecommunications had sought the opinion of TRAI to regulate internet calling and messaging apps. A DoT official had said that the DoT is preparing a framework to properly regulate internet calling and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Google Meet and for this views have been sought from Trai. 

There was a demand to implement the same service-equal rule

In fact, for a long time, telecom operators have been demanding the government to implement the principle of same service-same rule in the industry. Telecom operators say that internet calling and messaging apps should also pay license fees at par with telcos.