Telecommunications Act, 2023

The Telecommunications Act, 2023 (No. 44 of 2023) was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 20, 2023 and by the Rajya Sabha on December 21, 2023, receiving Presidential assent on December 24, 2023. It replaced the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 — a colonial-era legislation — and is the primary statute governing telecommunications in India.

The 2023 Act gives the DoT (Department of Telecommunications, under the Ministry of Communications) broad powers to regulate "telecommunication services," "telecommunication networks," and to prescribe cybersecurity standards. A key grey area was whether OTT (Over-the-Top) messaging services — which use internet connections rather than traditional telephone networks — fall under the Act. The government clarified that the Act does not regulate the OTT industry per se (which remains under MeitY and the IT Act), but messages sent through internet-based messaging services using a SIM number as the identifier are within scope.