Table Of ContentV. Sridhar
Emerging ICT
Policies and
Regulations
Roadmap to Digital Economies
Emerging ICT Policies and Regulations
“The book comprehensively covers the current and emerging policy and regulatory issues
relatingtoICT,especiallyasapplicabletoIndia.Further,itprovidesatheoreticalframework
for analysing each regulatory issue along with practical implications. A good reference for
researchers, regulators andpolicy makers.”
—Dr. R. S.Sharma, Chairman, Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India
“This book by Professor Sridhar provides an excellent overview of the challenges that the
worldfacesincopingwiththedynamicnewemergingdigitaltechnologiesthataffecttheway
we work, play and communicate with each other. As the internet and mobile telephony
becomesmoreubiquitousandaccessibletoeveryoneregardlessofsocio-economicclass,ICT
canbeusedforgoodorformischief.ThebooklaysouttheissuesofregulatingglobalICT
andpolicies thatgovernments should adopt to enableitsproductive andpositive use.”
—Dr. G.Anand Anandalingam, RalphJ. TyserProfessor of Management Science,
RobertH.SmithSchoolof Business, University of Maryland,U.S.A.
“Using problem-centric approach successfully opens the complexity of ICT regulation to a
wideraudience.Throughcleverlychosentopicalcaseexamplesthebooklinkstheproblems
of Indian andinternational ICTmarkets.”
—Dr. Hämmäinen Heikki, Professor,Department ofCommunications andNetworking,
Aalto University, Finland
“Prof.SridharisaThoughtLeaderintheTelecomspaceandIhaveenjoyedmyinteraction
with him over the years. This book is an excellent compendium looking at the main
regulations and policies with reference to the ICT sector. It serves as a ready reckoner for
newentrants andprofessionals alike,providing globalandlocalperspectives ontopicsthat
impact thegrowing Digital Economy.”
—P. Balaji,Chief Regulatory andCorporateAffairs Officer,
Vodafone IdeaLimited, India
“EmergingICTPoliciesandRegulations:RoadmaptoDigitalEconomiesisamustreadfor
understanding essential questions regarding ICT Policy and Regulation as digitization
develops locally and globally. With useful information on the case of India (and other
countries),thebookprovidesaclear,comprehensive,andcogentcaptureofrelevantconcepts
and practices as well as emerging challenges. Powerful illustrations make concrete the
nuanceof regulatory approaches andprovide addedvalue for the reader.”
—Dr. Nanette S.Levinson,Professor, Internet GovernanceLab, SchoolofInternational
Service, American University, U.S.A.
“Referencebooksareusuallyanimportantsourceofinformationbuttheyareoftennotvery
readable. I am glad to say that Prof. Sridhar has managed to produce a very-well written
account of ICT regulation and policies with a focus on India, and the result is a
comprehensiveandinterestingvolumewithanumberofveryusefulchapters;manyofthem
easilydigestedontheirown.Thebookishighlyrecommendedformembersoftheinternet
andtelecommunications industries, regulators andresearchers.”
—Dr. Jairo Gutierrez, Professor andDeputy Head,Engineering Computer and
Mathematical Sciences, Auckland University ofTechnology, NewZealand
“ProfessorSridhar’sbookprovidestherequiredregulatorytheoryandframeworkon13most
importantissuesofthedigitaleconomyandprovidesguidanceforsettingpoliciesandrules.
Acomprehensive reference for studentsandpractitioners in thearea of ICTregulation.”
—Dr. S. Sadagopan,Director andProfessor, International Institute of Information
Technology Bangalore,India
“Emerging ICT Policies and Regulations puts together invaluable and timely research in
mapping and analysing the various issues faced by digital economy in India. Prof. Sridhar
has captured the most pressing issues in it, pertaining to Competition Law and Policy,
Intellectual Property Rights, net neutrality, data privacy, regulating OTT services etc., not
just comprehensively, but in areader friendly way. A must readfor anyone wanting to get
insightsonthenumerouschallengesinvolvedinoptimallyregulatingICTdrivenservices.”
—Pradeep S.Mehta, Secretary General, Consumer Unity& Trust
Society International, India
“TheBookisaveryexhaustiveandexcellentcollectionofcontemporaryissues&challenges
on Policy & Regulation that the Digital Economy is likely to grapple with in the coming
years. The research on each of these issues which precedes the suggested outcome (by the
author)isverycomprehensiveandincludesdetailedanalysisoftheprosandcons,globalbest
practicesintheareaofPolicy&RegulationinotherRegimes,howtheIndiancontextdiffers
from the othersandtherefore, how itcould possibly beaddressed.”
—T. V.Ramachandran, President, Broadband IndiaForum, India
“Whetheritisspectrumauctionorlicensefee;netneutralityorinterconnection;cybersecurity
or privacy; Sridhar peels off layers and presents underlying tensions within the fast-paced
technological revolution andrather slowevolution of policy& regulation.”
—DeepakMaheshwari,FormerSecretary—ISPAssociationofIndia,Co-Founder—National
InterneteXchange ofIndia,Former Chair—IEEEInternet Initiative, India
“An encyclopedic mapping of regulatory challenges and solutions for the sector by the
alwaysinsightfulProf.Sridhar.Throughasinglebook,heprovidesanaccessibleguidetoa
plurality of regulations impacting the variouslayers of the OSI model.”
—Sunil Abraham,Executive Director, Centrefor Internet &Society, India
V. Sridhar
Emerging ICT Policies
and Regulations
Roadmap to Digital Economies
123
V.Sridhar
International Institute of Information
Technology Bangalore
Bengaluru, India
ISBN978-981-32-9021-1 ISBN978-981-32-9022-8 (eBook)
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The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
To my wife Kala for her enduring love
and support; our doctor-to-be daughter
Vindhya; and my mother Prema
Preface
Onatypicalbusinessday,youswitchonyoursmartphoneinthemorningtoreceive
a spate of messages—some of them genuinely addressed to you and some from
unknownsources.Forthefearoflosingpreciousmemoryonyoursmartphone,you
franticallydeletetheseunwantedmessagesandwonderwhythereisnogovernment
regulation in stopping such SPAM messages! After a morning cup of coffee, you
switch on your direct-to-home (DTH) set-top box and television and see this
message “Your balance amount is insufficient. To further view of the channels,
requestyoutotopup.”YoucursetheDTHfirmthatdespitefrequenttop-ups,your
moneyseemstovanishinthinairandyoureallydon’thaveanyclueastohowthe
channelsyousubscribedarepriced?Youdesperatelywanttheregulatorstostepin
to improve transparency in channel pricing to avoid such blackouts.
Afterahecticdayatoffice,theclockchimes6:00PMandyouarereadytoleave
for home.
Ready to depart, you try to book your cab through an aggregator platform such
asOlaorUber.However,theInternetjusthasblinked—theradiosignalstrengthon
your phone is just a one bar and refuses Internet connectivity. You wonder why
afterhaving twoSIMcardsonyourphoneandonelandline broadbandconnection
athome,youarestillnotabletoconnecttotheInternetwhenyoudesperatelyneed.
What is the meaning of the advertisements that you see in TV claiming gigabit
speed on their 4G/5G networks? Shouldn’t the regulator do something about the
quality of broadband connection?
After surreptitiously latching on to a nearby Wi-Fi hot spot, you find to your
dismay that the fare to your destination has gone up by 3x! With no other alter-
native,youhopintothecab,cursingwhythereisn’tenoughcompetitioninthecab
aggregator markets which would bring down the prices even in peak time.
Once in the cab, not to waste time, you open the app that you have recently
discovered on your smartphone that makes available your favorite books such as
Robin Cook’s Coma. You get engrossed by turning to the bookmarked page and
wonder whether it is legal for you as well as the app provider to provide copy-
rightedcontentfreeonanapp.Needlesstosay,youarepleasedthatyoudiscovered
thisappasithaseliminatedtheneedforyoutocarryhardboundphysicalbooksand
vii
viii Preface
also offering enormous flexibility to read the book of your choice any time any-
where! However, you also wonder whether you are trading your secret reading
pleasuresincludingthepageswhereyouconcentrateandwhereyoucallouslyflick
to the app provider to spy on you and possibly send promotional messages!
Then, you remember the World Cup Cricket match and that India is playing
against Pakistan which is a must-watch for every Indian! You just wonder how to
see the live coverage of the match to see where it is heading—obviously wishing
thatitisinIndia’sfavor.Youopentheover-the-top(OTT)videoappthatyouhave
downloaded,andwiththemobiledataconnectionturnedon,viewhowthecaptain
oftheIndianteamcruisestohis100runsinnotime!Then,yourealizehoweasyit
istoseethelivecoverageofthematchonyoursmartphone,whichwasimpossible
even5yearsago.WhatcouldtheimplicationbefortheTVbroadcastingindustry?
Are the channel broadcast rights sold even to the OTT app firm?
Timetogetdownfromthecab…Whilewalkingtowardyourhome,youplacea
call to your friend to wish him on his birthday, though it is a tad late! You
rememberyourfriendtellingyouabouthimpurchasingabrandnew4GLTEphone
as part of a promotional offer of a new mobile service provider at dirt cheap price
along with a free “all you can eat” data plan! You called his new mobile number
excepttogetthemessagethat“thenetworkisbusy.”Yousurmisethatyourfriend
hasbeencheatedwiththis“bundled”offerofaphonewithpoorserviceconnection!
After a couple of failed attempts, you curse why calls from your phone to
anotheruserwithadifferentmobileserviceproviderdonotalwaysconnect…Isthe
regulator raising the issue with the mobile service providers and finding out the
cause for these poor interconnections?
This book will unravel the mysteries regarding the above and illustrate through
examplestheregulatoryandpolicydimensionoftheseandrelatedissues.Thisisa
reference book for information and communication technology (ICT) regulations
and policies. The book is structured around 13 questions and will try to provide
possibleanswersin13chapters.Igotthisideafromthebookon“NetworkedLife:
20 Questions and Answers” by Mung Chiang published by the Cambridge
University Press.
The number 13 is often considered unlucky by those who are superstitious, but
asan angel, number13 isveryauspicious… Ihopethat it isthelatter in thiscase!
The figure below illustrates how the 13 chapters are interlinked. While the
dashed arrows show one-way relationship, solid arrows depict two-way
relationship. Though daunting, the individual chapters are so written that they
can be read as “stand-alone” pieces with references in them pointing to related
chapters.
Preface ix
5
3
7
4
2
8
1
11
6
10
13
9 12
A look at the above figure indicates that apart from Chap. 1 that covers the
generalregulatoryaspects,Chaps.10–13thatdealwithregulatoryaspectsofdigital
platforms, over-the-top services, data privacy, and machine intelligence, respec-
tively,havethelargernumberofout-andin-degreesintheabovegraphindicating
their prominence in the regulatory landscape.
I must point out that it is clichéd to say that “regulation always lags behind
technologies.”Inthesamevein,youalwaysfindtechnologyentrepreneurscribbing
aboutrulesandregulationkillinginnovation.Regulatorsandpolicymakersallover
the world have always encouraged technology innovation by enacting light-touch
regulation. However, when intervention is required, they have acted swiftly.
Needless to say, there are a number of unresolved complex issues in digital
economy. This book covers some ground on the emergent ICT policies and regu-
lations with specific reference to India.
Bengaluru, India V. Sridhar
Acknowledgements
I have been conceptualizing the idea of putting down the recent digital technology
and business evolution and the corresponding regulatory interventions initiated
worldwide, specifically those initiated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI). However, it has been my wife Kala’s constant persuasion, encour-
agement, and ideation that enthused me to compile them in the form of this book.
Herconstantreminderspromptedmetobeontopofmywritingsandhelpedmeto
successfully complete this project.
Parts of the book were piloted in my courses at the International Institute of
InformationTechnologyBangalore(IIIT-B),India.Mythankstograduatestudents
atIIIT-Bwhoprovidedvaluableinsightsanddiscussionsonvarioustopicsthatare
dealt in the book.
I have been fortunate to be associated with TRAI on various consultations, and
my thanks to officials at TRAI notably Chairman of TRAI Shri Dr. R. S. Sharma
andShriShreenivasS.Galgali,AdvisoratBangaloreRegionalOffice,forincluding
me in some of the important open houses and other consultation procedures of the
regulator.Theseinteractionsprovidedmevaluableinputsonvarioustopicsthatare
dealt throughout the book.
Ihavebeenfortunatetoco-authormanyarticlesthatarereferencedinthebook:
Foremost among them is Prof. Rohit Prasad at the Management Development
Institute(MDI),Gurgaon,India,withwhomIco-authoredmyearlierbookandalso
wrote many articles on radio spectrum regulation; Prof. T. K. Srikanth at IIIT-B
with whom I wrote many articles related to over-the-top and privacy regulations;
andmywifeProf.KalaSeetharamSridharattheInstituteforSocialandEconomic
Change,Bangalore,India,withwhomIwroteanumberofarticlesontheregulation
ofdigitalplatforms;Dr.AjayData,ChairofUniversalAcceptanceSteeringGroup
and Co-Chair of ICANN Neo Brahmi Generation Panel who provided valuable
inputstothesectionsoninternationalizeddomainnames;specialthankstoSamiran
GuptaofICANNIndiaforholdingmanyoftheICANNread-outsessionsatIIIT-B,
thus exposing me as well as my students to the ICANN governance process. My
thankstoKartikRaja,ChairmanofPhimetricswithwhomIcollaborateonprojects
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