The Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association today raised the issue of the susceptibility of the Indian telecommunications network to collapse at any juncture due to what the group called a lack of initiative on the part of the current United Progressive Alliance government.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram, TEMA said that depending too much on foreign companies for India’s telecom infrastructure leaves the country more vulnerable to security threats.
“The United States of America too has similar concerns as India’s. They have taken the issue of large scale use of foreign-made equipments in their telecom networks seriously. We are in a much worse condition, as almost all the critical subsystems of our nationwide telecom network have foreign equipment in it, and we are not taking any concrete step in mitigating this potential threat which exists by promoting the use of indigenous equipments into the network,” said TEMA director Ashok K. Aggarwal.
TEMA noted the investigation recently launched by the U.S. House of Representative’s intelligence committee to gauge the level of threat posed to the United States and determine which steps should be taken.
The association also noted a U.S. Commerce Department survey seeking a detailed accounting of foreign-made hardware/software on service providers’ network along with related to security incidents such as discovery of “unauthorized electronic hardware” or suspicious equipment capable of duplicating or redirecting data.
Referring to various media reports and statements made by government officials regarding the potential threat posed by imported and untested telecommunication components present in the telecommunication infrastructure, TEMA directed the attention of India’s government toward recent developments in the U.S.
“Our situation is no different than that of the U.S. except that they are proactive, while we have yet to take necessary steps towards correcting the situation,” Aggarwal said.
TEMA has appealed to the Indian government to take heed of the situation before it reaches an alarming state through continuous use of imported equipment.
The association has suggested requiring Indian telecom service providers to use Indian-made equipment for which complete know-how and expertise is available in the country.
