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Global mobile vendors face the heat [The Economic Times, India](Economic Times (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 1--NEW DELHI -- The government plans to revive an earlier proposal where all foreign telecom equipment vendors will have to pass stringent security tests in a government-controlled test bed for every product before selling it to any operator in the country. This test centre will be modelled after the China Information Technology Certification Centre (CNITSEC), which fulfills IT security certification responsibilities in the country. The Indian government had initially planned to set up such a facility in 2006, but the project did never take off. The proposal may be a compromise solution to address security concerns associated with Chinese vendors, such as Huawei and ZTE, who are walking way with a bulk of new supply deals signed in the telecom equipment space. Indian telecom operators have been strongly opposing any move to ban Chinese equipment suppliers. If the proposal is cleared, DoT's technical arm, Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), will set up the test bed, Telecom Testing and Security Certification Centre. The project will resemble steps taken by several countries, such as the UK and the US, who have put such facilities to ensure that external elements do not intrude in their communication networks, said government officials. But to ensure that the system does not lead to delay in procurement of products, the proposal also allows Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) with other countries, where equipment tested by other government-controlled test labs will be accepted. DoT will also allow network vendors to submit reports from Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB) -- the approved testing labs for certification of compliance with technical standards for equipment. Last week, DoT had asked mobile operators not to deploy equipments and networks supplied by Chinese vendors in 20 sensitive states. The government was unable to push for a ban on Chinese equipment vendors, as many telcos pointed out that buying equipment from western countries could make their businesses unviable. Chinese equipment vendors say that 'singling them out to be a security threat was part of a propaganda campaign by western companies based in the US and Europe. "Initially, the argument was that Chinese equipment was of poor quality. Then Western companies shifted their stance and said that Chinese companies could walk away with telecom contracts but would not be able to execute them due to poor communications skills, especially in English, which would be a barrier to them working with Indian engineers. Now, with Chinese companies bagging most equipment orders, they (Western firms) are trying to play the security card," a top executive with a leading Chinese equipment firm told ET. All new operators, who are rolling out telecom networks across India, have chosen to partner with Chinese companies. For instance, Reliance Communication's GSM networks is from Huawei. Earlier this year, Sistema Shyam chose Alcatel Lucent along with ZTE & Huawei to roll out its networks across the country. Videocon group-owned Datacom has awarded the contract to Huawei, while Loop Telecom has tied up with ZTE for pan-India rollouts. Unitech Wireless (Telenor) also decided to go with Alcatel Lucent & Huawei, as it builds a GSM-based network across the country. Government officials said that creating a test bed will also address concerns raised by the home ministry, which fears that vendors of suspect origin may install back-door entries, remote log in facilities and also install malware programs in networks and hardware. The home ministry has repeatedly warned that vendors can then use these holes to "mischievously bring down the network if the relationship between the company and the customer or the relationship between the supplier's nation and the customers nation becomes sullied". Recently, on the advice from security agencies, DoT, in a communication to BSNL chairman and MD Kuldeep Goyal, had said that networks provided by Chinese equipment major Huawei could go live only after all requisite security audits are done. Currently, there are no system of security audit for such telecom equipments. To see more of The Economic Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://economictimes.indiatimes.com Copyright (c) 2009, The Economic Times, India Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |