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Security concerns spoiling operators' 3G dreams
By siliconindia
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Friday, 17 December 2010, 00:32 IST
New Delhi: The security concerns seem to be spoiling our 3G aspirations in a big way. And not just us, the telecom operators stand to lose billion dollar investments, in the wake of the security agencies relaying their worries over monitoring the 3G services in the country. Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications have agreed to not offer 3G video calling services until the security issues get cleared, reports Thomas K Thomas of Business Line.
On the same issue, Bharti Airtel has announced that it is waiting for security clearances for launching its 3G services. The news comes after the telecom operators received a notice from the Department of Telecom to close their 3G services as security agencies could not intercept data flowing in their networks.
Although Tata and RComm have been asked to shut their services completely, the operators have agreed to do so only partially, by only keeping out video calling services. Tata had already started to offer video calling services, while RComm was yet to launch it. To meet with a solution for their predicament, industry top shots met with Home ministry officials.
The notice stated, "It is further directed that the 3G services should not be launched commercially till successful demonstration of the capabilities and approval of the same by DoT. If 3G services have already been launched by Reliance Communications in any of the service area, these should be stopped immediately."
The notice from the DoT read that the enforcement agencies were unable to intercept the video calls in real time. In addition services such as Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, two way text chatting on the operators' network could also not be intercepted.
The operators on their part complained that the step from DoT could harm their revenues. Said one of the operators, "We have invested thousands of crores of rupees in buying spectrum and setting up the infrastructure and now we are told that we can't offer services. There is a complete lack of understanding on the part of Government on how this technology works."
