India's Telecom Reform - Indian Institute of Public Administration

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Key Regulatory y Issues
Convergence
The NTP-99 also spoke of the convergence of communications
technologies and the need to have a policy that
could exploit it advantageously.
On August 11, 2000, the government received the draft
report of Sub-Group on Convergence. The group proposed
a Convergence Law and suggested a common regulatory
body for India for content and carriage, i.e., broadcasting
and telecommunications. The report received a
mixed response from sector players and experts. This was
in part, because it did not, as it was perhaps not mandated
to do so, deal with the large number of extremely contentious
licensing issues that would result during the move to
a converged policy environment in which carriage and
content would be treated in an integrated manner.
It was surprising to notice the relatively low profile manner
in which the Information Technology Act 2000 was
passed. The Act gave legal sanctity to electronic transactions.
It also created the office of Controller of Certification
Authority (CCA) to regulate Certifying Authorities (CA)
who would assign digital signatures and other instruments
of authentication. The retiring Director of DoT’s Centre
for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) was appointed
as the first CCA.
The Cabinet approved the Communications Convergence
Bill 2001 drafted by the committee. It also approved the
repeal of The Indian Telegraph Act 1885, The Indian Wire-
less Telegraphy Act 1933, Telegraph Wire Unlawful Possession
Act 1950, The Cable Television Networks (Regulation)
Act 1995 and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India Act 1997. The Bill, ambitious in intent, was unprecedented
in leaving no role for the government in licensing.
However, experts criticised it for being too general and
not dealing with transition arrangements as also with issues
relating to economic regulation. (The Bill was introduced
in Parliament and was also reviewed by a Parliamentary
Committee, but lapsed with the dissolution of the 13 th
Lok Sabha before it could be made into law).
Related, indirectly at least, to the same issue of convergence,
the government announced the merger of the Ministry
of Information Technology (MoIT) and Ministry of
Communications (MoC) on December 22, 2001. The new
entity is now called the Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology (MoCIT). The merger, much
discussed and debated, brought together MoC and MoIT.
However, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
was left out of this attempt at dealing with the convergence
of communications technologies.
Licensing and Regulation Post
NTP-99
Within months of the new team of members of TRAI
taking office, a series of decisions were taken, many of
which seem to reflect the message, explicit or implicit, about
the events that led to the dissolution of the previous body
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