The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has rejected the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) views that cloud services come within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and that any light-touch regulation would stifle the growth of India’s cloud ecosystem. TRAI reiterated that it had the power to make recommendations on cloud services.
In its response to a DoT back-reference, the TRAI has stuck to its earlier argument that cloud infrastructure/services cannot be separated from telecom infrastructure/services from a regulatory perspective, and that in an age of convergence, regulatory interventions must happen as and when required in the case of cloud services to protect customer interests.
TRAI has asserted that under its ambit, as provided in the TRAI Act and Indian Telegraph Act, it can make recommendations on cloud services and DoT can consider them to introduce appropriate measures or institutional mechanisms to deal with issues related to cloud services. The regulator has also underlined common elements between cloud and telecom services, pointing out that both rely on network infrastructure to deliver services to customers. Both cloud and telecom services require high performance, reliance and scalable data centres. It added that cloud service providers and telecom service providers need to safeguard their network and data centres against cyber threats.
