The Centre?s concerns over internal security will hit hard telecom operators once again. The home ministry has asked the operators to start location-based surveillance (LBS) of all calls and provide it with 24×7 details.
Under LBS, the exact location of a caller can be traced. This is currently not possible in India, where only calls and broadly the place from where it is being made can be traced.
The home ministry demand has sent operators in a tizzy. Reason: to provide LBS services, they have to invest heavily ? anywhere between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 25,000 crore ? for setting up more towers. LBS can be workable only if there is a mobile tower within a 50-metre radius of the caller, which means operators would have to set up a large number of new towers.
Further, as the operators brace up for 3G service launch by the year-end, the home ministry has asked them to store details of video calls for a period of six months, which would also require them to invest heavily in data centres.
Sources in the government said LBS would help prevent terror attacks like the one in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. However, operators maintain that such surveillance mechanism can only be implemented in a phased manner.
The idea has been borrowed from the Emergency (E) 911 service in the US, which provides location-based service. However, industry officials contend this has evolved since the ?80s in the US, where it was first applicable only on landline phones. ?We have suggested to home ministry officials that in the first phase they give us the names of suspected individuals for whom LBS can be provided, rather than for the entire 700-million-plus mobile users,? an official with a leading mobile operator told FE.
However, the home ministry has not accepted the plea so far on the ground that security threat can come from individuals who are not on the suspect radar.
On the issue of storing details of video calls for six months, operators say the home ministry has asked them not to worry about costs as the government may look at creating a storage centre for such data.
Video calling would be a new feature to be available with 3G services.
This service provides subscribers to talk while viewing each other and in technical parlance is similar to a multimedia SMS. ?As revneues from voice calls decline and we explore newer areas, the government, in its extra enthusiasm for security, loads extra cost on us,? an industry official said.
In the last 8-9 months, mobile operators have consistently hit the wall as the home ministry tries to up the security ante. First came the stringent import norms for telecom equipment, requiring vendors to share the software and hardware source code with the government. A temporary breather, however, has been given and fresh norms acceptable to the industry are being worked out. Next, the government adopted a tough stance against RIM which provides the popular BlackBerry service. RIM was asked to provide real-time interception of calls and data on its messenger and enterprise services. The company has been given time till year end.
Even BSNL and MTNL have been asked to provide lawful interception of 3G services. They can carry on with such services only after satisfying the intelligence agencies with demonstrations. More recently, the home ministry asked operators to stop providing mobile connections through retailers and distribution agents and instead opt for the courier and registered post route as is done in case of credit, debit and ATM cards. The operators have contended that with around 15-18 million connections each month, the courier and postal network is not equipped enough and this order could sound a death knell for the telecom industry.
