The Government of India is looking at revising one of the clauses in the proposed draft of the new telecom security policy, say news reports.
The government has already submitted the original draft policy for approval to the Telecom Commission. However, the government is specifically looking at revising one of the clauses of the policy that mandates telecom equipment manufacturers to indigenously develop or manufacture at least 50 per cent of all core telecom network equipment.
Earlier this year, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a draft proposal on new telecom security policy, which aimed at securing commercial telecom networks through local manufacturing of telecom equipments.
However, DoT?s draft proposal has attracted strong oppositions from governments of several countries, including the United States as well as foreign telecom equipment vendors. They see Indian governments? proposed security policy as a means to curb their operations in the country.
Foreign telecom operators have also registered their opposition with the government on the policy?s other clauses which propose that mobile phone companies will be permitted to induct both hardware and software only from trusted sources. However, as a concession for foreign telecom equipment vendors, DoT has made a change in the clause and has stated that it would accept global certification of network equipment. Earlier, DoT in the proposed policy had said that all core hardware required for the telecom network could only be installed only after it is certified in India.
Another clause of the policy that has attracted opposition from foreign telecom equipment vendors relates to DoT? proposal to ask the handset makers like Nokia, Samsung and Research in Motion, to either locate servers in the country or share encryption keys or provide other tools to assist the Indian security agencies in monitoring all the communication services offered by them.
