The Department of Telecom has called operators for a meeting on May 2 to finalise the new security norms for importing telecom equipment. However, equipment vendors, which will be directly impacted by the new rules, have not been invited for the meeting.
Once these rules are firmed up telecom equipment makers, including the Chinese, will be able to import gear without having to share source codes or signing an agreement with the operators. According to a draft of the new policy circulated to all the operators, DoT has decided to do away with the earlier announced security norms for importing telecom gear which had imposed stringent measures on the vendors. This comes as huge relief to companies such as Nokia Siemens and Ericsson as they had expressed their inability to comply with these rules.
At a recent meeting between top officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Department of Telecom, it was decided that the existing rules will be replaced by a fresh set of guidelines whereby the onus of keeping telecom networks secure would be put on the operators instead of the vendors.
Under the new rules, operators will be asked to ensure that only Indian citizens are hired for key operational and maintenance activities. They will also have to get their network certified through a third party agency. In case spyware or malware is found on the operator's network, the DoT will impose a penalty. But the penalty amount as been pegged at Rs 50 crore. Under the current norms, operators have to pay 100 per cent of the contract order as penalty which runs into billions of dollars.
Last year, the Government had announced a set of strict norms for importing telecom gear after security agencies expressed concerns that there could spyware embedded into the equipment which could allow agencies in unfriendly countries to snoop into Indian communication networks.