In the backdrop of the BlackBerry controversy, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has decided to set up an inter-ministry committee to oversee monitoring requirements of new value added services (VAS).
The committee would be headed by K Sridhara, member (technology), in the Telecom Commission and would have representatives from the home ministry, security agencies and service providers.
The panel would meet once in two months for speedy disposals of monitoring requirements, said officials. All kind of VAS?like BlackBerry services, GPRS, Mobile TV, ringer and caller tunes–would come under the committee?s purview.
The decision to form the committee was taken a couple weeks after DoT had held a meeting with the Cellular Operators Association of India where the association pointed out that launch of new VAS is delayed from indecision on monitoring setups.
Officials said the committee could bring clarity on the launch of new VAS. According to rules, the operators have to inform DoT whenever a new VAS is launched. But, in some cases, the matter is sent to the home ministry for clearance.
In fact, the recent controversy over BlackBerry services arose when one of the operators, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), applied for launching the services. When the application was forwarded to the homes ministry, which was deemed to be routine, did it come to light that the services did not have lawful interception facility as required by law.
The issue has assumed serious proportions since other major operators like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar have been offering the BlackBerry services.
In a series of meeting recently, DoT has asked the service providers to comply with the interceptions provisions. Last week it asked Research in Motionto outline a time-bound solution to the problem.
