The Telecom Commission (TC) on Friday decided to constitute a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) apex body which will have representatives from other regulatory authorities.

A ‘National Trusts Centre’ will be constituted for certifying M2M devices and applications including imported ones, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecom (DoT), told reporters here after the meeting.

“All device manufacturers will be mandated to implement security by design and a new institution will be set up called the ‘National Trusts Centre’, for certifying M2M devices and applications. The TC noted that we want to develop India as a major M2M and IoT centre,” Sundararajan said.

She said there will be many categories in M2M applications, which will be developed and this cannot happen without these standards. She said TRAI’s recommendations have been accepted in M2M and as per the recommendations, all access service providers holding any licence shall be allowed to provide connectivity.

However, there will be a circular clarifying that they should also separately register as M2M service providers. There will be a simple process of registration and those who offer these services in small areas (like in health clinics and operating in licensed spectrum) need not come to the DoT for licensing.

Framework for cloud services

In another decision, the TC decided that there should be light-touch regulatory framework for cloud services and self regulation would be encouraged to begin with.

Therefore, cloud service providers will be asked to form industry associations, which will be registered with the DoT. The DoT can issue directions/instructions to these bodies. It can withdraw/cancel registration of companies if it finds violations. A cloud service advisory group comprising all stakeholders will also be constituted, Sundararajan said.

“ No regulatory intervention is necessary for now on the interoperability and portability in cloud services, and the industry bodies will be tasked with promoting interoperability,” she said. However, the Telecommunications Standards Development Society will work with the industry to develop interoperability standards. The Government should take the initiative in promoting cloud computing as this can create more than 10 lakh jobs, she added.

Network testing

The TC also approved the norms for telcos to conduct network testing before commercial launch of mobile services, but capped the test phase for such trials to 180 days.

The issue of do’s and dont’s for network testing had stirred up a storm in the industry after Reliance Jio amassed over 15 lakh users during its test phase that preceded the commercial launch of its services in September 2016.

The Commission decided that TRAI should give recommendations prescribing a framework for testing in the of case fixed lines, too, and that reference will go to TRAI immediately.

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