This overhaul marks a pivotal shift in India’s telecom regulatory landscape, setting the stage for a more flexible and efficient industry.
The Centre on Wednesday completed a major phase of the rollout of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, by issuing a cluster of notifications that replace the decades-old licensing framework with a new authorisation-based regime for telecom services.The Gazette notifications bring into force key provisions of Section 3 of the Act, operationalise the Telecommunications (Authorisation) Rules, 2025, and lay down the mechanism for migration of existing licence holders to the new framework.Together, they mark the formal transition from the licence-centric system under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, to a streamlined authorisation regime envisaged under the new law.Under the new framework, telecom operators and service providers will be governed through service-specific authorisations issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), with existing licensees given a pathway to migrate to the new regime while retaining continuity of operations.The government has presented the changes as a move to simplify regulation, improve ease of doing business and create a technology-neutral framework capable of accommodating emerging communications services. The notifications collectively provide the legal foundation for implementing the Telecommunications Act and signal the beginning of a comprehensive restructuring of India’s telecom regulatory architecture.Additional authorisationsFor instance, in the Telecommunications (Authorisation for Provision of Principal Telecommunication Services) Rules, 2026, the DoT said each authorisation granted under these rules will be on a non-exclusive basis and additional authorisations for same principal telecommunication services may be granted by the Centre within the same or other service areas without any restriction on the number of new authorised entities.It also noted that any application made for grant of a license or letter of intent (LoI) for grant of a licence that may have been issued under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885), prior to the date of commencement of these rules, will lapse if the licence under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885) pursuant to such application or LoI had not been issued prior to the date of commencement of these rules.Similarly, the Centre has also notified Telecommunications (Authorisation for Captive Telecommunication Services) Rules, 2026, enacting as a law saying the network can only be used by the authorised company and its subsidiaries. Commercial exploitation or traffic routing for third parties is strictly prohibited, it said.Captive networks typically use spectrum allocated directly by the government or leased from commercial telecom service providers (TSPs) to prevent interference.The authorised entity also must comply with strict data localisation, encryption and national security directives issued by the Centre, it noted.Published on June 24, 2026
