Government To Block Internet Telephony Citing Security Concerns
Cheap international calls over VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) may soon be a thing of the past for Indians as the Intelligence Bureau has asked, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), to block all Internet telephony until security systems to trace the same are in place. Readers might recall that during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, this mode of communication was used.
The intelligence department is of the opinion that India does not have the structure in place to track international as well as local calls. Since in the absence of CLI (Caller line identification) parameters of calls landing from abroad, It is not possible to identify the country of origin.
Some facts about Net telephony in India.
- Indian consumers have used over 130 million minutes of Internet telephony in the January-March quarter 2009.
- Companies which offer net telephony in India are Telco’s such as MTNL in Delhi and Mumbai and many leading ISPs.
- In addition, any consumer with internet access can use services from hundreds of companies such as Skype (which was sold recently) , Google, Yahoo! and Window Live, amongst others.
- About 34 ISP Providers in India are offering this service illegally.
- The Department of Telecom had issued orders in February this year to block Internet telephony services being offered by 39 foreign firms in India since Indian laws permit only licensed operators to offer Internet telephony services.
Some analyst are of the opinion that this step should have been taken immediately after the 26/11 attacks. Cyber security expert Vijay Mukhi in an interview to Economic Times when asked about the security issue of net telephony in the western countries, said:
“All Major players who offer VOIP services have provisions that allow governments to track these calls. Many of them have also installed equipment at their premises to monitor VOIP calls upon orders from governments.”
In India there is a lobby highlighting the inconvenience which will be faced by millions of Indian users as not only are the calls cheaper, the sound quality is also much better. The effect on the financial health of the ISPs are also a concern. Experts are of the opinion that the government should work out a solution with the major players as they would be suffering the most.
As quoted by Mr Pavan Duggal, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court and an expert on cyber laws, “ A ban is not the solution, Since there are so many private player and miscreants will find a way through “
How much time the Department of telecom will take to come out with a solution would be anybody’s guess The case being technology verses security, the jury is still out on this one but the brunt as usual will be borne by the common man. Also as India contemplates to ban VOIP our german friends are actually lifting their ban on the service.
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