The Digital Revolution is often called as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the first three being the Steam Engine, followed by the age of Science and Mass production, and computers. World over, the Digital Revolution is driving the socio-economic and technological growth of the human race. The revolution is driven by various factors like the availability of high-speed Internet, innovative products and services, the need for efficient management and distribution of resources both by the Government as well as private entities, the user’s ubiquitous requirements of remaining connected at all times etc.  The entire gamut of Digital Transformation is to provide innovative products and services to improve productivity and efficiently.

The role of regulator:

Telecom Sector would be the key growth engine driving the Digital Revolution.  A major portion of the applications and services that are being developed are based on the mobile connectivity, hence the role of Telecom Service providers as well as the Regulator becomes more and more challenging. The Regulators have the onerous responsibility of maintaining a balance between encouraging innovation, protecting, consumers, creating an environment for orderly growth of industry as well as address unintended consequences of disruptions. The Regulator today can no longer afford to be lagging in the technology development curve.

Regulations:

As new business models and services emerge, government agencies are expected to create or modify regulations, enforce them and communicate the same of the environment at faster pace. Based on the emerging technologies, a Regulator therefore may have to consider the following approaches while formulating the regulations today:

1. Regulations should be Adaptive: A rigid Regulatory framework may prove to be detrimental to innovation as well as the growth of industry. Use of Regulatory Sand-boxes Impact assessment of regulation on the technologies may be studied before issuing the Regulations.
2. Collaborative Regulations: As brought out earlier, services and products today may require regulation by multiple Regulatory bodies; hence a collaborative Regulatory approach would have to be adopted.

Steps taken by TRAI:

• TRAI has taken considerable steps in the past five years, recommendations have been issued to the Government on cloud computing, M2M communication, Net Neutrality, National Wi-Fi Grid using WANI architecture, and ‘Privacy, Security, and Ownership of Data in Telecom Sector.
• In order to protect the consumers interests TRAI has launched various apps like
  • MySpeed app for data speed measurement
  • Mycall app to report voice call quality
  • Do Not Disturb App for Crowdsourcing of data about offending messages and calls.
  • Recently, TRAI has launched an online portal for presenting and comparing the tariffs offered by various service providers for telecommunication services.
• In the field of broadcasting and cable service also, TRAI has completely revamped the regulatory framework. The new framework would ensure effective choice to the consumers at affordable process

Way forward:

• New sets of regulations and frameworks that facilitate seamless co-existence as well as smooth migration need to be framed.
• Though a large number of initiatives have been undertaken both by the Government as well as the private sector, a large population remains devoid of connectivity to the internet. Spreading awareness as well as connecting every individual are keys to the socio-economic metamorphosis of our country.

Conclusion:

The Telecom Sector is witnessing the biggest transformation in the past several decades. New technologies and services based on mobile connectivity, social media, data-analytics, cloud computing etc are being designed today. These technologies and services have blurred geographical boundaries, created exciting business models, created job opportunities, empowered the citizens and attracted world telecom leaders to India. TRAI has a very important role today in not only regulating the Digital revolution in the telecom sector but also be a front-runner in adaptively regulating emerging technologies.