ICT
DoT issues Guidelines for 5G trials across all available Spectrum bands Cabinet
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued guidelines for 5G trials across all available spectrum bands indicating to allocate up to 400 MHz of radio waves for experiments. The DoT has fixed a uniform fee of INR 5,000 (~64 Euro) for the trial licence. However, its validity will range between 3 month and 2 years, depending on the purpose for which the trial is being conducted.
The government has plans to conduct spectrum auction for 5G services by the end of this year to enable the roll-out of commercial services using the technology in 2020.
Indian entities involved in R&D, manufacturing, telecom operators and academia for the purpose of R&D and experimentation can get licence for a period of "up to two years, renewable on case to case basis by WPC, subject to truncation to prevent interference to licensed operations".
MEITY seeks feedback on data bill from select organisations
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has sought inputs from select stakeholders on its draft data protection Bill. MEITY, in a letter sent has sought clarifications on issues such as data localisation and ways to govern non-personal data, including anonymised, community and ecommerce data.
MeitY has sought inputs on the scope of the data authority and obligations for the data fiduciary. It also asked stakeholders for feedback on the “contours of a policy that should govern non-personal data” and whether there was a case to mandate free access to such data. The Bill would focus only on personal data of citizens and that MeitY was not looking to expand that to include non-personal data. MeitY is not holding “any fresh consultations” on the Data Protection Bill. No industry association or company has been contacted and only individual opinions have been sought, the official clarified.
MEITY whitepaper to seek opinion on non-personal data
MEITY may come up with a report on non-personal-community, anonymised and ecommerce - data held by companies, including Uber, Google and Amazon, to be used to chalk out a policy on nonpersonal data regulation. The government may also consider leaving it to the ministries or regulators to define which kind of data should come under the purview of such a policy. This comes after the latest round of select stakeholder consultation over the draft Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, in which the government has also sought opinions on the contours of a policy for non-personal data, besides feedback on issues such as data localisation.
Cybersecurity Policy to be unveiled in January 2020
The government of India plans to release a Cybersecurity Strategy in 2020. The government had “made a start” on a cybersecurity policy, the present Cybersecurity policy was released in 2013, and a lot has changed in the six years since then.
5G will change the entire scope of cybersecurity in India. There are new aspects like ransomware, and IoT was not there, so with these changes, there is going to be a new strategy for dealing with cybersecurity. A small team has been created to draft the policy and public consultation will be sought in due course.
Series of Measures approved to increase ICT access to PwD
The Digital Communications Commission (DCC) approved a series of measures to increase Information and Communications Technology (ICT) access to persons with disabilities (PwD), including a mandate for major mobile phone manufacturers to produce at least one model which satisfies the needs of PwDs.
“All mobile manufacturers who produce more than 5 models shall be mandated to make one model that satisfies the needs of persons with disabilities.
The Centre has also been conducting inter-ministerial consultations on the issue and a committee under the Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities will now be set up to drive measures focused on increasing ICT access to this group of telecom users. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had already submitted its recommendations on the issue as early as July 2018, with the measures approved by the DCC largely toeing the line. DCC has also approved other measures suggested by TRAI.