All telecom service providers will now have to inform the department of telecommunications (DoT) at least 15 days prior to their offering value added services (VAS) to subscribers. Telecom operators will also be required to inform DoT whether they have met security guidelines on telecom services.At present, DoT and Blackberry are at loggerheads due to the smartphone not meeting security guidelines on some of its services. Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance are offering Blackberry services to their subscribers even though the phone prevents tapping of data.“It has been brought to the notice of the licensor (DoT) that telecom service providers are not meeting the legitimate monitoring requirement of the security agencies which has serious implications on national security,” DoT said in a letter written to all telecom service providers. If operators fail to inform DoT about new VAS that they want to launch, then it will be considered a breach of licence conditions and DoT will take action accordingly.“The required information — in the prescribed format — with regard to monitoring arrangement, will be made available by all the operators for each service that is being offered or proposed to be offered to the respective cell of the department on quarterly basis,” DoT said in its letter.The telecom department also said that an amendment was made in the licence agreement in 2002 with regard to VAS which inter-alia provides that: “the licensee should make arrangements for monitoring by government security agencies.” However, DoT said, this has not been implemented by most telecom service providers. “The licensees are also directed to ensure that no new services are launched until appropriate systems for monitoring of this service are put in place,” said DoT in its letter. DoT will inspect the nature of monitoring arrangements that have been made available by service providers for the services offered by them.
