Page 121 - SAMENA Trends - July-August 2023

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

The government has implemented new reforms de- the next five years. (August 7, 2023) www.mobileworldlive.com
signed to protect mobile customers from fraud and
cybercrime, the Economic Times writes. The reforms Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued
include mandatory police verification of SIM dealers Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Repealing Reg-
India and the discontinuation of bulk SIM sales. In a press ulations, 2023 (02 of 2023) dated 25.07.2023 to repeal
the Regulation on quality of service of dial-up and leased
briefing on the matter Communications and IT Minister
Ashwini Vaishnaw explained the need for the reforms, line internet access service, 2001 (4 of 2001) with ef-
noting that since the introduction of the Sanchar Saathi fect from date of its notification in Official Gazette. 2.
portal in May the Department of Telecommunications TRAI notified the Regulation on quality of service of di-
(DoT) has detected and blocked 5.2 million connections al-up and leased line internet access service, 2001 (4 of
that had been opened using fraudulent documents. The 2001) on 10th December 2001. This regulation was ap-
Sanchar Saathi portal enables customers to check mo- plicable to all the Basic Service Operators and Internet
bile subscriptions established in their name and deac- Service Providers including the incumbent operators
tivate any that were set up fraudulently, and to trace or viz. BSNL, MTNL and VSNL. The purpose of laying down
block lost devices. The minister added that 67,000 SIM Quality of Service Parameters was to ensure customer
dealers had been blacklisted and 17,000 stolen or fraud- satisfaction by laying down norms of network perfor-
ulently obtained handsets were blocked, whilst 300,000 mance, which the service provider is required to achieve
handsets were returned to their rightful owners. The by proper dimensioning of his network; measure the
reforms will require SIM dealers to be registered and Quality of Service from time to time and to compare
verified with the authorities whilst biometric verification that with the specified norms so as to monitor the level
of the sellers will be mandatory, with the minister add- of performance, provided by various service providers
ing that ‘with these measures the dealers who sell SIMs and to protect the interests of subscribers of the Inter-
can be held accountable’. Secondly, the bulk purchase net services. 3. These regulations were issued when
of SIMs will no longer be permitted, and replaced with the dial up service was the only service available for ac-
a new ‘business connection’ system that will require the cessing low speed internet. With the passage of time,
buyer to register with the authorities. (August 18, 2023) The Eco- the telecommunication networks, both wireline as well
nomic Times as wireless, have evolved to offer high speed broadband
service on xDSL, FTT'H, LTE and 5G etc, technologies.
The government pushed back a deadline requiring over- Whereas the leased line access services are generally
seas device makers to obtain a license to import prod- offered by Internet Gateway Service Providers (IGSPs)
ucts, after Apple, Samsung and HP halted shipments to holding an ISP license to enterprises, is a Service Level
the country, Bloomberg reported. A day after introduc- Agreement (SLA) based service. Being SLA based ser-
ing the measure, aimed at encouraging local produc- vice, the agreement among the contracting parties has
tion, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade gave sufficient provisions to safeguard concerns regarding
companies until the end of October to secure permits to service quality, Hence, the regulation on quality of ser-
import tablets, laptops and PCs, the news outlet stated. vice of dial-up and leased line internet access service,
The surprise directive forced major device manufactur- 2001, appears to be no more relevant in the present con-
ers to start talks with the government about how to ob- text. 4. In view of the above, earlier the Authority issued
tain licenses. Despite the trade regulator’s backtracking, draft Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Repealing
the move prompted 44 hardware manufacturers to reg- Regulations, 2023 on 03.04.2023 inviting comments of
ister to manufacture devices locally, Business Standard the stakeholders up to 17th April 2023. Based on the
reported, citing official sources. One official told the comments of the stakeholders and considering the as-
newspaper the government aims to repeat the success pect of Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), Authority has
achieved under a production linked incentive scheme decided to repeal the Regulation on quality of service
across other electronics categories. In October 2020, of dial-up and leased line internet access service, 2001
the government handed out INR450 billion ($5.5 billion) (4 of 2001) with effect from date of Telecom Regulato-
in incentives to 16 domestic and international electron- ry Authority of India Repealing Regulations, 2023 (02 of
ics companies to boost smartphone production over 2023) in Official Gazette. (July 26, 2023) www.trai.gov.in

Ireland’s Commission for Communications Regulation consultation on the matter back in January 2023, it said
(ComReg) has begun a further round of consultation that after considering feedback it was now revising its
regarding its proposals related to the universal service preliminary views and draft decision instrument. Com-
obligation (USO) for voice-only connections and voice Reg is now seeking comments on its revised preliminary
Ireland communications services at a fixed location (‘VFL ser- views, which include that fixed line incumbent eir should
be designated as a universal service provider (USP) for
vices’). With the watchdog having launched an initial

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