Wi-Fi without licence violates telegraph Act, Trai Act, claim industry bodies

While telecom operators’ body COAI and internet service provider’s (ISPs) association ISPAI have written separate letters to the PMO, the Assocham has approached telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan.

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The association said Trai recommendation to introduce the concept of PDOAs and PDOs under the registration is flawed

Industry associations — COAI, ISPAI and Assocham — have urged the government, including the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), to review Trai’s recommendation allowing public data office aggregators (PDOAs) and public data offices (PDOs) to provide internet through Wi-Fi without a licence, which they claim violates the Indian Telegraph Act and Trai Act.

While telecom operators’ body COAI and internet service provider’s (ISPs) association ISPAI have written separate letters to the PMO, the Assocham has approached telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan.

“We believe the proposal to sell internet services without a licence will be a complete bypass of the present licensing framework, detrimental to massive investments already made in spectrum, telecom infrastructure and services,” COAI director-general Rajan S Mathews said.

The association said Trai recommendation to introduce the concept of PDOAs and PDOs under the registration is flawed and beyond the scope of Trai Act as the regulator is authorised to frame rules related to licensed operators and not unlicensed operators.

Explaining that internet is a network, which supports communication between end points, COAI said the medium works over different media platforms like wireline, wireless, etc and messages are transferred in the form of sign, writing, image, sound or intelligence.

With inputs from FE