A Telecommunications Bill is Passed by Parliament to Replace Laws From the British Era

New Delhi: A measure that aims to provide the government the ability to temporarily seize control of telecom services in the event of a national security emergency and to establish a non-auction method of allocating satellite spectrum was approved by Parliament today.

The Rajya Sabha passed the Telecommunications Bill, 2023, by voice vote. Following a brief discussion, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved it.

In the name of national security, the bill aims to provide the government the ability to temporarily seize control of telecom services and to allocate satellite spectrum in a non-auction method.

Additionally, it permits the Center to seize control of a telecommunications network in the event of a public emergency or to protect public safety.

In addition, it allows for message interceptions and transmission halts in the event of a public emergency, protecting the public by preventing encouragement to commit crimes.

The bill states that press communications sent by accredited reporters for the federal government or state governments may not be intercepted or held up until their transmission is forbidden by laws pertaining to public order and emergency situations.

“In the last nine-and-half-years, India’s telecom sector has emerged from a very difficult period marred by scams to become a sunrise sector,” said the minister.

He said that within the same time period, there are now 25 lakh telecom towers, up from only 6 lakh in 2014, and there are 85 million internet broadband subscribers, up from just 1.5 crore in 2014.

According to him, India deployed 5G technology at the quickest rate in the world under the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, using the greatest amount of domestically produced hardware.