India Mobile Congress 2020
 Shaping Sustainable Digital Future through Telecom and Technology
10.12.2020

Here are my interventions at this event as a panellist: 

A. On the subject of How Digital Communications can contribute towards the achievement of SDGs and is there any change in perspective on account of the pandemic.

If there is one thing that we have learned from the ongoing pandemic it would be that digital connectivity is absolutely essential. In a situation where you are physically separated and distanced only digital connectivity can ensure business continuity and socio-economic stability and growth. Work from home, study from home, shop from home, remote monitoring of health and logistics and smart factories etc., all these are impossible without quality connectivity.

Further, the pandemic has also underlined that this inevitable requirement of digital connectivity also exacerbates the implications of digital divides. The digital have nots really suffer. The efforts of the Government to reach out and alleviate the problems of people in crisis too can be frustrated if they are not digitally connected.

I can tell you that post the pandemic, there is a strong and renewed emphasis on both tapping ICTs for better citizen services, health and education, logistics and agriculture etc. and also on universal digital connectivity.

Even in the absence of the pandemic, there has been a huge emphasis on digital connectivity & ICT as is evident from the vision of Digital India and the Government’s emphasis on digital financial inclusion, digital identity, digital education and health, the Direct Benefit Transfer Mission and the underlying ICT infrastructure. Now we have a new Digital Health Mission and a commitment to connect all villages with fibre.

The release of the National Digital Communications Policy in 2018, the emphasis on BharatNet and the launch of the National Broadband Mission are all on account of the clear relationship between ICTs and the achievement of SDGs be they related to poverty or equality, health or education, employment or environment.

Telecom penetration has multiplier effects across the economy and in an increasingly digital future, it will be critical to enable expeditious achievement of SDGs. Each line of action to achieve an SDG has a digital counterpart. Thus if regional disparities are sought to be reduced by targeting 115 Aspirational Districts, The Deptt.  of Telecom has special schemes to provide connectivity to the Aspirational Districts. This is because ICTs are fundamental for other government efforts to fructify.

 And of course all the SDGs are related. Thus, smart agriculture and logistics can help to end hunger, digital health and education can directly impact the related SDGs but also end poverty and reduce gender disparities. Better land and water management through ICTs and sustainable development through smart grids can help reduce natural disasters which otherwise aggravate poverty and inequalities.

Digital connectivity is a great transparency enhancer and can give citizens a voice and provide a much-needed feedback loop to inform policymaking. It can thus empower citizens and strengthen justice.

In particular, I am a great believer in the power of digital connectivity to reduce inequality and bring about gender parity. We have heard of the adverse impact of the pandemic on women. Women’s education, employment and safety can all be greatly enhanced through digital connectivity. Even today, female ownership of mobiles or digital literacy is very low. Further, accessible ICTs hold great promise for persons with disabilities are needed to care for the aged especially in situations like the ongoing pandemic.

 B.  On What can be Done to Hasten Connectivity?

There are many fronts on which this problem is being tackled and can be tackled.

First connectivity must be universal. We still have a very skewed penetration. Rural broadband penetration lags at around 30% of the population and even teledensity is less than 60%. Then as mentioned earlier there is the question of equal access for women and Persons with Disabilities. This requires affordable devices, accessible devices and digital literacy.

Second is the quality of our broadband. We still lag behind on speed. We have an average speed of about 12MBPS against an ambitious target in the National Broadband Mission of delivering  50 MBPS.

There are major problems in the deployment of telecom infrastructure due to Right of Way issues. These need to be tackled. At present less than 40% of our towers are fiberized and we need many more towers. The national Broadband Mission aims to almost double the number of towers. Adequate spectrum must be made available to improve quality and allow for new technologies and innovation.

 If we are to tap the benefits of 5G, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, augmented reality and Virtual Reality to make use of innovative new applications across socio-economic sectors we need to address these issues. New telecom technologies have very different deployment architecture and the regulatory the environment must keep pace.

 Then we have an over-reliance on terrestrial communications and especially mobile broadband. We need multi-modal connectivity for redundancy and ubiquity. We cannot expect to provide broadband connectivity to 100% rural and remote areas through only terrestrial means. We must strengthen and expand our satellite broadband sector.

NITI Aayog is working with DoT to expedite the implementation of BharatNet through Public Private Partnership which would give a greater role to the private sector thereby also ensuring induction of the latest technology and greater uptake or usage.

NITI Aayog is similarly supporting the National Broadband Mission.

We have worked with DoT on Right of Way issues to expedite fibre rollouts and telecom infrastructure deployment. On the one hand, states and local authorities and on the other hand Central Government Ministries like Railways, Highways, Power and Natural Gas, Environment and Forest etc. need to accept the criticality of telecom infrastructure and actively facilitate its roll out.

As a part of the National Broadband Mission, DoT is creating a Broadband Readiness Index for states which would measure infrastructure availability and positive policy environment and this should hopefully sensitize them in this regard.  Broadband for All is a national imperative.

 We are also aiding them to open up the satellite communications sector so as to spread broadband to rural and remote areas, ensure robust multimodal connectivity and to tap the full potential of IoTs and location based services.

The whole regulatory environment for telecom needs to be conducive to greater investment, innovation and rapid deployment.  

There needs to be considerable simplification of the licensing regime. Greater ease of doing business and a more technology-neutral approach are the need of the hour.  Complicated ex-ante systems need to be replaced with Trust based authorizations combined with effective deterrence.

A case in point is the recent very progressive change in Other Service Provider Licensing regime which will greatly benefit our IT services sector and facilitate remote working. This was a case of the pandemic highlighting the need for changes which may otherwise have taken a long time to materialize.

We should use this crisis to bring about many other such reforms. For example, the pandemic highlighted the need for online recharges, universality of smartphones, and nationwide ration cards and subsidy transferability.

I believe that India’s Universal Service Obligation Fund too can be used to much greater effect to encourage infrastructure creation and innovative new schemes for universal broadband connectivity. Its Rules allow for this and it has the required corpus.

The pandemic has also heightened the need for secure and resilient communications which means enhancing our presence in global supply chains and greater participation in IPR and standard-setting as far as advanced telecom technologies are concerned.

In summary, I can assure you that while there was always a huge push towards digital connectivity and applications and awareness of their impact.There is now a strong and renewed emphasis on this critical aspect of national development.

.............................

 

International Cooperation on Regulation of Digital Markets

I am sharing a contribution I had made during a meeting in relation to the UN's Digital Cooperation Initiative at New Delhi. I had stated that, today the old regulatory silos of  telecom (networks and services), IT (OTTs, internet content, cloud computing, cyber security etc.), financial services (e-payments), Information & Broadcasting (content)  etc. may actually be  impeding the efforts of governments across the world to address challenges emanating from digital economy. This is particularly relevant for developing countries.

Addressing the digital divide requires a holistic approach addressing both supply (infrastructure and services) and demand side (skills capacity building) initiatives. Then, there are many challenges emanating from e-markets such as data collection and processing, complex competition and consumer protection issues (e.g. those arising from market power of large e-platforms), which particularly developing nations may be ill equipped to deal with. This is all the more pertinent  given that developing country markets are among the biggest sources of data and revenue for the large global digital players but need capacity building to tackle these complex issues. This calls for international cooperation. Not only will the lack of uniformity in international approach harm the growth of digital markets which cut across borders (for e.g. mismatched approaches towards data protection, taxation and competition law), the lack of capacities can also be harmful from view point of exploitation of consumers.

This calls for global consensus on standards, principles and practices. As a senior  officer from the telecom department, I have participated in ITU deliberations and often seen how such bodies despite their tremendous contribution are handicapped by the aforementioned silos when it comes to progressing discussions on complex issues surrounding digital markets. Thus, while the ITU has been discussing data protection and privacy, OTTs and competition issues during the deliberations of the current cycle of ITU Development Sector's  Study Group 1, and I have personally made contributions and presentations on this matter, we are also stymied by issues of mandate.

As a method of dealing with the above mentioned challenges, I would like to suggest that the  UN could in fact help by encouraging nations across the world, to create an informal yet international body to address these challenges. From my experience of heading the Mergers & Acquisitions work at the Competition Commission of India and co-chairing the International Competition Network's (ICN) Merger Working Group with Canada and the EU,  I would highly recommend  the  model followed by the ICN. 

It is  an informal yet effective  institution  which does not make rules but arrives at best practices which member states are free to adopt. It is a professional, global organisation led by national governments (competition regulators). It is focused on real world competition issues and is relatively free from bureaucracy. It covers almost every facet of competition law  organised into relevant verticals. It has active participation from NGAs and academia and has contributed tremendously to voluntary internationally accepted standards, consensus building and capacity building and  has  promoted global business by facilitating  multi-jurisdictional competition compliance. At the same time it has served as a valuable forum for learning, collaboration, exchange and capacity building.

This model can very usefully be adapted to suit the multi-faceted needs of digital cooperation.

Big Data-Competition & Consumer Protection Issues, Falling between Regulatory Stools?

I recently gave a talk cum Presentation  during the  Forum on Challenges in the digital environment 2018, organised by the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones on November 7-8 at 2018, Mexico City. It can be viewed here.

This presentation draws attention to the competition and consumer protection issues (such as privacy and discriminatory pricing) arising from the exploitation of big data and the fact that many of the concerns appear to fall between regulatory stools in the sense of not being easy to fit into any particular regulatory mandate, be it the competition authority or the consumer/sector regulator or the data protection regulator.

Economic and Regulatory issues in the Era of Free Services

This post is based on a presentation I made at the International Telecommunications Union. The presentation can be viewed here.

Introduction

Our lives today are greatly facilitated by modern telecommunications, the internet and various Over the Top (OTT) applications and services. By lowering costs, bringing us greater choice and innovative methods of service delivery, OTTs in particular have become an indispensable part of modern life. In the near future, newer technologies such as Machine to Machine (M2M) /Internet of Things (IoT) communications and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will confer further benefits such that we will be living in progressively smart societies. 

As can be expected, markets by themselves will not always deliver perfect outcomes and the transition to, and the management of smart societies will entail new regulatory challengers. Thus, even in the digital economy, with its multiplicity of players and where many services are delivered free at times rendering price irrelevant, both as an indicator of market power and as a regulatory tool, the role of regulation will continue to be vital.  

From a regulatory viewpoint, it will be important to protect innovation and competition and to empower customers through good regulation and greater transparency, so as to build trust in new applications and services. These are prerequisites for continued growth of new technologies, without which, the trend towards smart societies will not be sustainable in the long run.

In an increasingly converged environment where all types of services (not just communications) are facilitated by ICTs, it would be impossible to regulate without collaboration between the ICTs regulator on the one hand, and the competition regulator, data protection authorities and a host of sector regulators on the other.

Smart societies will call for a review of the regulatory approach in the areas of competition, security, quality of service (QoS) and interoperability and also demand much greater attention to inclusiveness, privacy and data protection, transparency and trust. 

In the era of OTTs, IoT and AI, some of the important areas engaging the attention of ICTs regulators across the world are the promotion of investment in new technologies and networks, appropriate methods of licensing and spectrum allocation, new competition issues, universal service, net neutrality, privacy and data protection and QoS. Many of these regulatory problems are interconnected.

Net Neutrality 

The issue of Net Neutrality for example, requires the regulator to express its stance on non-discriminatory treatment of internet traffic. While there may be no unique answer relevant to every regulatory context, the decision on Net Neutrality regulation will always involve examining questions of investment, competition, interoperability, transparency, trust, inclusivity etc. On due consideration of various aspects, India has taken a pro net neutrality position and forbidden zero rating of services.

Regulation of OTTs

When it comes to OTTs, the regulator while acknowledging the popularity and benefits of these applications and services must be wary of both the pressure from incumbent telecom service providers (TSPs) to regulate OTTs, and of ignoring the unique regulatory problems surrounding OTTs. The former arises in part from the asymmetric regulatory burden wherein TSPs are subject to requirements of licensing, taxation, law enforcement and security, emergency services, universal service, QoS etc., and OTTs players are not. The latter is less evident but significant. There are noteworthy competition and consumer protection issues surrounding OTTs, especially given the tendency towards creation of global giants such as Uber, Google, Amazon and Facebook. The theoretical explanation for the evolution of large, global platform operators is the reduction in transaction costs, uninterrupted economies of scale in comparison to brick and mortar firms, and strong network effects. 

Given the above, even though there are ostensibly a large number of players in digital markets and services appear to be free or relatively low priced, traditional competition problems of misuse of market power, barriers to entry, competition reducing mergers and acquisitions and unfair trade practices continue to exist, albeit in new forms in contemporary markets. This is evidenced by recent regulatory actions against global platforms in the areas of competition and data protection. 

While there may well be a call to correct the imbalance of regulatory burdens on existing operators vis-à-vis OTTs, any attempt to license/regulate OTTs must first and foremost address issues of fair competition and consumer protection, rather than focus per se on the protection of incumbents.  There may be in fact a case to move towards light(er) touch licensing regimes for both types of operators wherein the focus is on innovation, investment, security and consumer protection. Any decision on licensing will have to take into account taxation issues too. The positive multiplier effects of telecom penetration and digital services which tend to increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and hence, the tax base may justify less focus on direct levies and greater reliance on general budget for funding universal service interventions.

Regulation of M2M/IoTs

When it comes to licensing M2M / IoT operators it must be noted than many of these are not necessarily communication service providers. Apart from the danger of over regulating too early in the life cycle of this new technology area and thereby hampering innovation, there is also the question of regulatory burden and cost entailed when the number of players is so large. Added to this is the complexity of regulating entities which serve so many different sectors such as energy, transportation, health and agriculture etc. This is a challenge which calls for cross sectoral regulatory collaboration and newer, flexible regulatory approaches. India has recently decided on a policy approach which combines light touch licensing and cross sectoral regulatory oversight.

Privacy & Data Protection

An unquestionable facet of our lives in smart societies would be the threat to privacy and security of personal data emanating from the large scale disclosure and collection of data on a daily basis thanks to our digitally connected personal devices, homes and cities etc. As technology becomes increasingly pervasive and intrusive, timely legal and regulatory interventions to protect privacy and personal data become critical. This is not just a political, strategic or ethical issue, it is also important from the business perspective of consumer demand. In the absence of adequate protection of their rights to privacy and control over their personal data; in the absence of consumer trust; consumers will cease to subscribe to even the most innovative or useful applications. This would not only adversely affect the profitability of the digital communications industry, it would also impede further innovation and the scaling up and sustained growth of new technologies and applications. Such a scenario would deprive the world of their benefits. This requires industry and governments to come together to ensure adequate regulatory safeguards, privacy by design and to promote consumer awareness.

In fact, it is widely acknowledged that data is the hidden cost of free services and the new source of market power of Apps and digital platforms.  Going forward, the regulation of data shall occupy the attention of not just data protection authorities, but also ICT’s’ regulators, competition regulators, law enforcement authorities etc. From a competition viewpoint, data portability and anonymized data sets could be remedy the monopolization of data.

Competition

Data as a source of market power is also closely linked to contemporary issues of competition regulation as in multi-sided markets, it is consumer time/attention/data that attracts advertisers who are the major source of revenue for digital service providers. This is turn makes cross-platform operators who can accurately profile customers based on their consumption of email, messaging, banking services, transportation, social media and shopping services etc. very powerful and with market power comes the possibility of its abuse. While ICTs and competition regulators have recently started examining platform to business practices, there is in fact a need to review competition regulation of digital services on many fronts. The definition of markets and sources of market power are all changing and much more information about newer markets will need to be collected for a better understanding. This calls for partnership and cooperation among all stakeholders.

Conclusion

It is important for regulators to collaborate, learn, adapt and be flexible. It is also important for industry to bridge information asymmetries, to build consumer trust and to work together with regulators to ensure the continued growth of digital services in a manner that benefits all stakeholders.