Cloud services: Trai rejects DoT's view on MeitY's jurisdiction
telecom department’s view that cloud services come within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) as well as the latter’s suggestion that any light-touch regulation would stifle growth of India’s cloud ecosystem.
The regulatory authority further reiterated it had the powers to make recommendations on cloud services.
In its response to a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) back-reference, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has stuck to its earlier position that cloud infrastructure/services can’t be separated from telecom infrastructure/services from a regulatory perspective, and that in an age of convergence, regulatory interventions must happen as and when required in the case of cloud services to protect customer interests.
Back in September 2020, Trai had recommended a light-touch regulatory framework for cloud services via setting up of an industry body through a three-step process.
It had suggested that this industry body be registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and be formed using an approach akin to one used for formation of the M2M body by DoT.
Further, it had suggested that the scope of the services be limited to cloud service providers of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). It had also recommended that telcos not be allowed to share infrastructure and platform related to telegraph with a cloud service provider (CSP) that is not a member of the proposed cloud services industry body registered with DoT.
But DoT, in its back reference, dated April 13, 2023, had rejected Trai's recommendations and told it that the government had come to a prima facie conclusion that `cloud services’ pertains to MeitY,
