NEW DELHI: The telecom regulator will strengthen rules around pesky communications and also send its recommendations to the government soon if OTT communication players such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, etc, need to be regulated.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti Friday told reporters that recommendations on the need for a regulatory mechanism for OTT communication services and selective banning will be out soon after an open house discussion on the matter with all the stakeholders.
Trai in July last year came out with a consultation paper on the regulatory mechanism for OTT communication services and selective banning after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked the regulator to reconsider its 2020 recommendations wherein it had proposed that OTT services need not be regulated.
Refuting reports that the paper has become infructuous in the wake of notification of the Telecommunications Act, Lahoti said, “The consultation was initiated after the recommendations of a parliamentary committee and this consultation will continue. We will give our recommendations, and which Act it becomes a part of and which ministry or which regulator deals with it, is a separate matter.”
Regarding pesky communications, Lahoti said Trai will come out with a consultation paper in the coming months to tighten the rules.
“Already there is a Trai regulation and a robust system in place. But some people are misusing the system, so we will revise the system and make it stronger,” Lahoti said.
Trai will work on curtailing people calling from normal 10-digit numbers to make promotional calls. The government has made 140 numbering series for promotional calls, but the same series was available for service and transactional calls.
“The entire government, be it Department of Financial Services, Consumer Affairs Department, DoT and Trai, all are working in tandem, and we are completely conscious of the problem and to address this problem,” the chairman said.
“We have already given our recommendations to the government for CNAP (calling name presentation) that will also help,” he added.
Following these recommendations, the government will be conducting a pilot shortly before implementing it, an official said, asking not to be named.
Under the pilot, the DoT will study whether to implement CNAP on the network layer or physical layer, and use the results for the final implementation, the official added.
CNAP is being seen as a way to curb spam and fraud calls that have seen a marked increase in recent times.
As part of the recommendations, Trai said the government should issue appropriate instructions for making CNAP available in all mobile phones sold in India after a suitable cut-off date from the date of notification.
Regarding OTT communication players, the telcos have for long demanded that communication apps be regulated as they offer similar services without the security and financial obligations attached to a licensee. OTT players have argued they are already regulated under the IT Act and more rules will only stifle innovation.
However, the new Telecommunications Act has removed OTT services and apps from the definition of telecom services, indicating that they need not be regulated. But after certain sections raised concerns about the overarching definition of telecommunications in the Act, the government clarified that the mandate of the Act was only meant for carriers like telecom operators and internet service providers.
Lahoti has also clarified that Trai would recommend the regulatory mechanism for OTT players, but under which Act or department it would be incorporated is a separate matter. As per the mandate of the government, DoT can only regulate carriers while content falls under the ministry of information and broadcasting, internet apps fall under the ministry of electronics and IT, financial apps under the finance ministry, health data under the health ministry, and so on.
Source: The Economic Times
Rs100-cr bribe charge against D K Shivakumar in sex tape case 