DoT notifies right of way rules

The Department of Telecommunication (DOT) on Wednesday notified the right of way rules under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, which prescribe how telecommunication infrastructure, including mobile towers, poles, common ducts and conduits to hold cabling, small cells, street furniture, and the like, can be installed over public and private property.
These rules have been notified under Sections 11, 12, 15, 17, and 56 of the Telecom Act and supersede the Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016, and the Indian Telegraph (Infrastructure Safety) Rules, 2022. They will come into force on January 1, 2025.
Between the draft rules that were released for a thirty-day public consultation on July 11 and the notified rules, three major changes have been made.
First, the central and state governments are now empowered to direct the authorised entities (entities authorised/licensed to provide telecom services in the country) and public entities that own the infrastructure to set up temporary telecom networks above the ground “in the public interest or in case of special public events” under Rule 10.
Second, the rules introduce the concept of force majeure to extend the timelines given in the rules for the application and granting of permissions. Third, the central government can notify projects as “special projects” in the “public interest” for which all permissions required for establishing the overground or underground network will be “deemed to have been granted”. Such projects will not be subject to any fees.
Mobile OS provides to now sent emergency alerts
Mobile operating system providers such as Google and Apple will now have to ensure that the disaster alerts sent by the government every year are automatically read out in at least four Indian languages, besides Hindi and English. The project aims to cover all 22 languages under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The move is in accordance with the new amendment notified by the Department of Telecommunications on Wednesday to the Indian Wireless Telegraphy (Cell Broadcasting Service for Disaster Alerts) Rules, 2023.