National Assembly discusses draft Law on Telecommunications (amended)

Presenting the Report on explanation, acceptance and revision of the draft Law on Telecommunications (amended) at the meeting, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science , Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said that regarding the proposal to consider expanding the scope of regulation for 3 new services, namely OTT telecommunications services, data centers and cloud computing, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly found that the draft Law regulating 3 new services compared to the 2009 Law on Telecommunications is necessary.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly also noted that data center and cloud computing services are services that store and process data; the laws of some countries focus on data protection; Vietnamese law has relatively complete regulations on ensuring information security and data protection; therefore, managing these services at an appropriate level is to facilitate the development of the digital economy and digital society. OTT telecommunications services are services without network infrastructure, users can easily change suppliers, and the market has the ability to self-regulate. Referring to international experience, the draft Law stipulates that the management of this service is open and flexible, and does not hinder the provision of services by businesses. The provisions in the draft Law are mainly aimed at protecting the rights of users and ensuring information safety and security.

Regarding the auction of the right to use telecommunications numbers and Internet resources, the Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment said that there were opinions suggesting the need to remove obstacles and ensure the implementation of the auction of the right to use telecommunications numbers and Internet resources.

1(1).jpg — Chairman of the National Assembly 's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy presented a report explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on Telecommunications (amended).

Incorporating the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft Law was revised in the direction of regulating the types of telecommunications resources granted through auction; at the same time, regulating the method of determining the starting price for each type of resource based on international experience, in accordance with the economic development situation and people's consumption level.

Accordingly, the starting price for the auction of mobile subscribers is determined by the average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at current prices of the year immediately preceding the auction date calculated for one day. The draft law also stipulates the order and procedures for the auction to be carried out in accordance with the law on property auctions.

Regarding information on subscriber information management, preventing SIM cards with incorrect subscriber information - spam SIM cards, unwanted calls and messages, the Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment said that some opinions proposed strict regulations on the rights and responsibilities of telecommunications enterprises and subscriber owners in managing mobile subscriber information, preventing and handling spam SIM cards, calls, spam messages, fraudulent calls to social network accounts and all activities related to mobile subscribers; regulations on handling this subscriber if there is a violation related to that mobile subscriber.

In response to delegates' opinions, the draft law has added regulations on the responsibilities of telecommunications enterprises and telecommunications service users in managing subscriber information, preventing and handling SIM cards with incorrect subscriber information, unwanted calls and messages, and fraudulent calls.

At the same time, to strengthen measures to prevent unwanted calls, messages, and scam calls, the draft Law has added provisions prohibiting the use of devices and software that illegally access public telecommunications networks in Clause 5, Article 9....

In addition, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly has directed the Agency in charge of reviewing, the Agency in charge of drafting and relevant agencies to review and perfect the legal style, and rearrange and restructure the draft Law to make it more reasonable and logical. The draft Law after being received and revised consists of 10 Chapters and 73 Articles.

Discussing in the hall, the majority of delegates highly appreciated the drafting agency, the reviewing agency, and relevant agencies for actively coordinating, absorbing, and revising the comments of National Assembly deputies at the 5th Session and the Conference of National Assembly deputies working full-time on this Law project, and also contributed comments to perfect the Draft Law.

Commenting on the Draft Law, Delegate Nguyen Van Canh - National Assembly Delegation of Binh Dinh province was concerned about the regulations on auctioning telecommunications service subscribers, agreeing with the content at Point c, Clause 4, Article 50 on the starting price of auctioning terrestrial mobile telecommunications service subscribers determined by the average gross domestic product per capita at the current price of the year immediately preceding the auction time as announced by the General Statistics Office calculated in one day.

However, in reality, there are many subscription numbers with high values compared to the starting price. Therefore, delegate Nguyen Van Canh said that it is necessary to group the numbers with high potential value because it both increases budget revenue and reduces the number of people who win the auction but do not take it. If not grouped, there will be many cases of deposit abandonment when many winning auction numbers are up to tens, hundreds of millions to billions of VND. The auction winners later find that they do not meet their needs, they will return the auctioned numbers and only lose the deposit equivalent to 262 thousand VND.

The delegates also mentioned the numbers with high value, and also referred to the pilot auction of car license plates. Delegate Nguyen Van Canh suggested that this grouping be assigned to the Ministry for specific regulations. The mobile subscriber numbers after unsuccessful auctions in the groups will be transferred to the group with lower starting prices for further auctioning. The numbers in the group with the lowest starting price after unsuccessful auctions will be directly allocated to organizations and businesses.

Concluding the session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai said that the National Assembly Standing Committee will direct the drafting agency, the reviewing agency and relevant agencies to study and fully absorb the opinions of participants to complete the explanatory report, absorb and revise the draft law, and complete the draft law to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

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