The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has extended the last date for submitting comments for the draft telecom bill 2022. This bill is going to play a pivotal role in shaping the laws and policies around the telecom business in the coming years. The digital world is no more like it used to be. More immersive technologies and platforms are coming and powered by 5G; their growth and evolution would be totally different from what we saw with 4G. So the DoT has given industry stakeholders and interested parties more time to submit their comments on the draft telecom bill 2022. The last date for submitting the comments on the bill has been extended to November 20, 2022. Earlier, the last date was October 20, 2022, which was later extended to October 30, 2022. The last date was further extended till November 10, but now, DoT has extended the date even further to November 20.
The bill is explicitly going to talk about whether the OTT (over-the-top) communication players will be brought under regulation or not. This is something that the telcos have been batting for a long-time. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents the private telcos, has said that to create a level playing field, it is important that the OTT apps be regulated as well.
