According to a letter by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to Department of Telecommunications (DoT), India’s telecom operators have reportedly opposed the DoT’s decision to transition to an authorisation regime and advocate for the continuation of contractual agreements with licensed entities.
It mentioned that the existing contractual licensing framework provides both regulatory certainty and a safeguard through enforceable contractual rights. The association cited the examples of the ministries of coal and petroleum and natural gas that grants licenses to successful bidders in their respective fields that are contractual in nature.
In the authorisation mechanism, a telecom company will be authorised to offer services while terms and conditions would be notified separately under the Telecommunications Act, 2023. The structure is different from the current regime wherein there is a contract between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and a telecom firm, and all the rules and regulations are part of the contract. However, COAI said that the two terms have practically the same meaning. “The concept of permission is not new as the legislative and dictionary meaning of the term ‘license’ implicitly includes the concept of granting permissions.”
Telcos challenged the regulator’s interpretation that the new act’s rulemaking provision necessitates all terms and conditions under a rule-based regime, abandoning the current contractual agreement approach.
