Reorient telecom licensing approach

What we need to ask is not how to license more, but why license at all in certain cases. We must assess if the cost of compliance outweighs the societal benefit

- TV RAMACHANDRAN

IN WHAT MAY seem a self-contradictory position, in this digital era, telecom has been "liberated" from the telecom market and is woven into the fabric of almost all socio-economic activity. It has become the magical wand that opens doors to completely different sectors such as retail, finance, banking, healthcare, education, and transportation. Data flows defy geography to deliver enormous socio-economic benefits across borders. Yet, even in this hyper-connected world, notwithstanding admirable achievements on many fronts and a historic Telecommunications Act 2023 with many parts being implemented, India's licensing policy framework remains somewhat archaic, with sectoral silos and physical boundaries. Telecom licenses and authorization take ages, compliance checklists stretch endlessly, and penalties are calibrated for the monopoly era—not for the layered, border-blurred, and ultra-agile digital ecosystem we now inhabit.

Yet, as more services overlap—telecom, broadcasting, satellite, cloud, content, and fintech, all enmeshing with each other—the policy instinct has been to extend control rather than recalibrate it. The question we therefore urgently need to ask now is not how to license more, but why license at all in certain cases. And where licensing is justified, we must assess whether the cost of compliance outweighs the societal benefit.