Kolkata: Former officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India<\/a> (Trai) and the Department of Telecommunications<\/a> (DoT) have said if the draft telecom bill<\/a> in its current form becomes law, it could further dilute the sector regulator’s powers.
Such a scenario, they cautioned, could potentially weaken the regulatory environment, lead to greater government interference in policy<\/a> making, hurt consumer interests and even lead to a decline in quality of telecom services.
“Trai’s regulatory powers are already far less than those of Ofcom<\/a> and other global counterparts in the US, Europe or even in Pakistan, and if the draft telecom bill<\/a> leads to a further curtailment of its powers, it would be a retrograde step as a toothless telecom regulator would not be in the interest of consumers or the industry and would also impact investor confidence in future,” Sudhir Gupta<\/a>, former Trai secretary, told ET.
He added that a weak regulator would be detrimental to consumer interests, going forward, as it won’t be able to ensure either fairness in tariff regulation or enforce quality of service parameters effectively even as India prepares to go 5G from next month.