Amending the Telecommunications Law to develop digital infrastructure

According to Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, the amendment of the Telecommunications Law aims to supplement regulations on new contents, in line with the trend of telecommunications development, convergence trend, and formation of digital infrastructure - infrastructure of the digital economy.

On the morning of June 2, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, authorized by the Prime Minister, presented the Proposal on the draft revised Law on Telecommunications.

This draft law consists of 10 chapters and 74 articles. According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, the 2009 Telecommunications Law is of great significance to the development and integration of the economy in general and the telecommunications industry in particular, marking a new step in the development of telecommunications law in our country, especially in the face of globalization.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung. (Photo: QH)

After more than 12 years of application, the Telecommunications Law and its guiding documents have created a legal corridor to promote competition, creating conditions for businesses to participate in the market. In addition to the achieved results, the Telecommunications Law has revealed limitations, inadequacies, and is not suitable for the new context with many changes. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively amend to build a legal corridor suitable for new requirements and overcome obstacles in implementation and State management. Currently, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital technology , and digital transformation have taken place strongly at an unprecedented speed in the past 10 years, having a great impact on the telecommunications sector. In the trend of digital transformation, data has become the most important resource of the digital economy, a new input for production, so many countries attach great importance to data center infrastructure, cloud computing and have issued policies and regulations for management. The convergence of telecommunications, information technology and recently convergence with digital technology. This convergence blurs the line between telecommunications and information technology, posing difficulties in building and perfecting institutions. Previously, providing telecommunications services required telecommunications network infrastructure. Managing network infrastructure enterprises meant managing telecommunications services. But today, on the Internet, telecommunications services (including basic telecommunications services) can be provided, and even cross-border telecommunications services can be provided. This raises the issue of managing telecommunications services on the Internet, managing cross-border telecommunications services to ensure the principle of equal management between telecommunications services and safety and security issues. Therefore, amending the law aims to fully institutionalize the Party's policy on developing a market economy with State regulation in telecommunications activities, developing telecommunications infrastructure and other infrastructures to create a foundation for the development of the digital economy and digital society. The amendment also aims to overcome institutional problems, policy loopholes, and inadequacies in the provisions of the 2009 Telecommunications Law and legal provisions related to telecommunications activities that limit the development process. Supplementing regulations on new contents, in line with the telecommunications development process, the convergence trend, and the formation of digital infrastructure - the infrastructure of the digital economy. Timely response to the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Science , Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy presented the report on the review of the draft law. The review agency basically agreed with the necessity of promulgating the revised Telecommunications Law for the reasons stated in the submission. "The amendment of the law after more than 13 years of implementation aims to promptly respond to the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution; implement international commitments; contribute to the development of a socialist-oriented market economy in the telecommunications sector," the representative of the review agency affirmed.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy.

According to the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, the amendment of the law also aims to achieve the goal of building digital infrastructure to meet the requirements of developing the digital economy and digital society; at the same time, ensuring consistency and synchronization with legal provisions, overcoming shortcomings, difficulties and obstacles in organizing the implementation of the Telecommunications Law in the past. Regarding specific issues, Mr. Le Quang Huy said that the majority of opinions agreed with the expansion of the scope of the draft law to the following services: data centers; cloud computing and basic telecommunications services on the Internet (OTT telecommunications) to suit the development trend of telecommunications in the context of digital transformation. Regarding ensuring information confidentiality, Mr. Le Quang Huy said that there were opinions that the provisions at Point b, Clause 4, Article 6 of the draft law did not really ensure the rights of service users. Therefore, it is proposed to more strictly regulate the exchange and provision of information related to telecommunications service users between telecommunications enterprises to ensure the right purpose and bind the responsibilities of enterprises. The Committee on Science, Technology and Environment also believes that data center services and cloud computing services are not yet fully regulated by current laws. These two services are considered value-added telecommunications services, so there needs to be management sanctions. Mr. Le Quang Huy said that the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment agreed that there needs to be State management of the above services to ensure the rights of service users, safety and security. However, it is proposed to review and clarify the differences in products and services provided between data center services, cloud computing services and telecommunications services.

New points of the revised Telecommunications Law

- The draft law stipulates licensing conditions in the direction of simplifying procedures. - Complete regulations on using mobile subscriber SIM accounts to pay for telecommunications services and information content services on legal mobile telecommunications networks. - Add subjects of telecommunications infrastructure sharing activities. - Complete regulations on increasing the shared use of passive telecommunications infrastructure among telecommunications enterprises to ensure effective use and cost savings. (Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung)

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