The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to bar mobile phone companies from launching Nokia’s pushmail and powermail messaging services in India until adequate legal monitoring systems are implemented.

Messaging services from the Nokia stable, which typically involve push email for companies and consumers, enables mobile users with compatible Nokia handsets to manage multiple email accounts from widely used email services such as Yahoo!, Gmail, Rediff and Sify.

This comes after the MoHA has asked DoT to overhaul existing legal frameworks to broaden the criteria of telecom/internet services.

DoT and the Ministry of Information Technology IT have been asked to implement the necessary changes in the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 and the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2007. These acts ensure operator compliance with the requirements of the security agencies.

Once the necessary amendments are framed, it will be mandatory for operators to implement systems that deliver authorised intercepts based on telephone numbers, device identity, email IDs, IP addresses or keywords to the national security agencies on a real-time basis.