Cabinet approves 74 per cent FDI in telecom

New Delhi: The Cabinet has approved amendments to Press Note 5 of 2005 that imposed stiff monitoring needs for telecom service providers, and has increased foreign direct investment in telecom from 49 per cent to 74 per cent.

Hence, remote access to networks in India will be permitted from approved locations, information and broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after a meeting of the cabinet. Remote access will only be allowed to equipment suppliers, manufacturers and affiliates and will not allow access for monitoring calls and content.

It will also be mandatory for operators to keep an audit trail of all remote access activities for six months, send a compliance report twice a year to the government and maintain a 'mirror image' of all remote access information for online monitoring.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) had also called the setting up of a centralized lawful interception and monitoring system-through which service providers can be monitored from a centralised location. And while the chief technical officer (CTO) could be a foreigner vetted by security agencies, the chief officer dealing with network operation (network administrator) has to be a resident Indian national.

To strengthen the monitoring system further, the vigilance technical monitoring cells of the DoT will be augmented and will have a director level representative from security agencies. Apart from technical vigilance functions, these cells will also carry out activities on security aspects at the premises of the telecom service operators.

These conditions were formulated on the basis of the recommendations of a high level group set up by the Cabinet last December to suggest safeguards and examine security conditions on allowing remote access to the country's telecom network from foreign countries-in the light of growing terrorism and increasing security concerns.