Telcos urge TRAI not to through mandating a framework for a regulatory sandbox

In the open house discussion conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on March 18, the telcos have once again unanimously said that there is no need for a regulatory sandbox in the Indian telecom space.

Airtel emphasised that the complexities of the two sectors, telecom and finance should be kept in mind before borrowing the concept and applying it to telecom.

The telcos maintain the current unified licensing rules are adequate, and have requisite checks and balances in place. There is no need for a standalone regulatory sandbox policy framework for developing and testing telecom products and services. Anyway, telcos are mandated to submit within 90 days of launching a service that they are broadly compliant to the scope of the License and requisite monitoring facilities are successfully demonstrated by the Licensee. They urged TRAI to recommend that regulatory sandboxes be operated either by licensed operators or jointly by licensed service providers.

When TRAI had floated the consultation paper way back in June 2023, the telcos had expressed reservation. Jio had argued that there is no need for a regulatory sandbox in India as far as the products and services of TSPs are concerned. For non-TSP products and services, Jio had suggested that TRAI launch a liberal government-controlled sandbox open to all interested parties like educational Institutions such as IITs and universities based on forbearance and light touch regulation. And the TSPs be permitted to set-up their own sandbox with limited restrictions and can onboard partners or applicants for testing new and innovative processes. Airtel had argued that if implemented, the sandbox should come with requisite guardrails to ensure telcos don’t have to share sensitive data sets and be financially compensated for participating. It had also warned against the sandbox becoming a mechanism for TRAI to intervene before or after commercial deployment of products. Vi had said that a sandbox may help in testing and launching of innovative business models at a time when 5G is being rolled out in India, and the emergence of new use cases is being widely anticipated. But it repeatedly stressed that a sandbox should not become a tool to dilute the licensing and regulatory regime. Telcos also pointed out there aren’t many successful use cases of government led regulatory sandbox being deployed in the telecom sector despite it being the harbinger of innovation and technology. Rigorous testing requirements are already in place in the telecom sector globally for services as well as telecom equipment, Jio had said.

Govt’s view. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology had recently unveiled the policy on Spectrum Regulatory Sandbox and said, “the implementation of regulatory sandboxes to streamline equipment testing procedures will go a long way in fostering innovation and ease of access.” The press relesae said, “ The Government has introduced guidelines for the Spectrum Regulatory Sandbox (SRS) as part of the Millennium Spectrum Regulatory Sandbox initiative to foster innovation, enhance ease of doing business, promote Make in India in the telecommunications sector. This initiative provides a simplified regulatory framework to facilitate R&D activities, promoting exploration of spectrum bands and driving technological advancements. This move signifies the government’s commitment to nurturing innovation and propelling India as a global leader in telecom technology.”

CT Bureau