Following an open house discussion, TRAI has granted an additional week for stakeholders to provide their inputs on the consultation paper concerning the regulation of converged digital technologies and services. The new deadline for submitting feedback on this matter is now August 30. During the discussion, many stakeholders expressed their reservations about convergence at this juncture. Airtel emerged as the sole player in favor of the convergence proposal.
The consultation paper on ‘Regulating Converged Digital Technologies and Services – Enabling Convergence of Carriage of Broadcasting and Telecommunication services’ was released on January 30, 2023. There were 5 broad issues for consultation starting with whether the present laws are adequate to deal with convergence of carriage of broadcasting services and telecommunication services.
Whether the present regime of separate licenses and distinct administrative establishments under different ministries for processing and taking decisions on licensing issues, are able to adequately handle convergence of carriage of broadcasting services and telecommunication services was the second topic raised for discussion.
Additional matters addressed included the effective synchronization of institutional establishments across ministries for optimal performance in the converged era. This apart there was a question on steps that has to be taken towards creating a unified policy framework and spectrum management system for broadcasting and telecommunication services.
Besides the reformation of legal, licensing, and regulatory structures, the discussion extended to identifying other crucial factors necessary for a comprehensive realization of convergence’s advantages.
When the paper was open for inputs, players like Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), Broadband India Forum (BIF), All India Digital Cable Federation, NASSCOM, Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF) and many others had shared their views against the motion.
“Telecommunication services and broadcasting services are distinct. Mere bundling of different services (like TV, broadband and voice) into one offering does not imply that both the services have converged. Such offering only enables a service provider to provide multiple services as a bundled offering and each service within the said bundle remains distinct,” IBDF said in their 16-page input document on the consultation paper.
According to them, the regulatory framework for content should be kept distinct and separate from the regulatory framework of carriage as the principles for regulating carriage and content are different, and the skill sets required to implement and oversee regulation of each are also disparate.
NASSCOM had similar views. They said there is no need for a converged code or regulator. The current frameworks for telecommunications and broadcasting are working efficiently according to them.
As per the consultation paper, presently in India, at technology level, convergence has already happened as one general purpose network can serve all types of services – telecom, broadcasting and ITeS.
At service level also, it has converged as services are becoming network agnostic and media types and formats and signaling protocols to establish sessions and deliver payloads are becoming the same. Similarly, at device level, it has converged as all types of digital devices may be used to consume different types of services.
“However, this technological convergence at network, service and device level is facing challenges due to absence of convergence at statutory, licensing, regulatory and administrative level,” said the paper.
TRAI will come up with their recommendation on the subject after receiving the final inputs from stakeholders.