P. Chidambaram, Minister of Home Affairs has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to frame a policy pertaining to the interception of services such as BlackBerry?s mail server, Nokia?s push mail service and Skype.
He said that the issue of interception did not refer to a particular vendor, but was pertinent to all operators and vendors. Moreover, he said that the role of the DoT was to frame a policy on this issue, while that of the Ministry of Home Affairs was to determine which service was to be permitted in the country, under the policy.
Prior to this, the government said it may spend Rs 5 billion to establish a centralised monitoring system.
This system was expected to enable security agencies to tap phone conversations, real-time chat and data without assistance from telecom operators. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the funding for this system and for establishing a testing facility at Indian Insititute of Science, Bengaluru.
It is believed that the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) will float a tender for the same shortly. The centralised monitoring system is expected to be established in 24-30 months time.
Currently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has to collaborate with operators to intercept any call or data.
