Govt delays security testing requirements for broadband gears amid US pressure

With this concession, India moves to remove certain non-tariff trade barriers as it discusses a bilateral trade agreement with the US, which has criticised New Delhi over its business environment for American companies. Earlier, the government had also proposed to abolish proposed to abolish the equalisation levy on online advertisements — colloquially called the Google Tax — in a move largely understood to placate the US administration.

The National Centre for Communication Security (NCCS) under the DoT notified that the broadband gear products will be under the “voluntary security certification” regime till August 31, during which administrative fees and security test evaluation fees shall not be levied. OLTs are installed at the broadband service providers’ side for transmission of signals using optical fibres, while ONTs are installed at the user end for accessing the services.

In September 2017, through amendments made to the then Indian Telegraph Rules, the government said that all telegraph equipment will have to undergo mandatory testing and certification. In 2019, the Centre implemented the Mandatory Testing and Certification for Telecom Equipment (MTCTE) procedures, which require local security testing for telecommunication products. A year later, the DoT issued the ‘Communication Security Certification Scheme’ (ComSec), which was applicable to the security certification of all telecommunication equipment that is required to go through mandatory testing and certification processes. Products that are covered under the testing norms were expanded to 175 items in 2021, including routers, core equipment, 5G base stations, and servers, among others.

In a report on April 1, the USTR said that the US industry was “concerned with the in-country testing and certification requirements,” and that the country had urged India to “reconsider its domestic testing and certification requirements, to accept test results from International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation accredited labs, and to adopt the use of the Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement”.

“US stakeholders have cited the following as continuing issues: lack of government testing capacity; a cumbersome registration process; canceled registrations due to administrative reasons that are unrelated to safety; and additional compliance costs that can exceed tens of millions of dollars, including costs associated with factory-level and component-level testing,” the report said.

It added that the US government has “recommended that the Indian government recognise internationally accredited labs, harmonise labeling requirements with global practices, harmonise the validity period of test reports and certification, and eliminate retesting requirements”.