The Ministry of Telecommunications has proposed network security audits by external agencies for all telecom operators, and informed Rajya Sabha on the status of the deployment of the telecommunications network infrastructure in India. According to information from the ministry, BSNL, the state-backed telecom operator, has significant network equipment that comes from Chinese providers Huawei and ZTE, while operator MTNL also has Chinese stake in its network equipment. Specifically, the telecommunications ministry has revealed that 44.4 percent of BSNL’s mobile network infrastructure is based on ZTE equipment, while 9 percent comes from Huawei. For MTNL, 10 percent of its team is based on Chinese teams.
Based on this report, the telecommunications ministry has informed Rajya Sabha that it has proposed network audits for all telecommunications companies and said that according to the unified licensing standards in the Indian telecommunications sector, each telecommunications licensee carry out an audit of their networks. However, this will not be an internal audit. Based on the recommendations of the Department of Telecommunications, this is expected to be a special security audit of all telecommunications networks by external auditing agencies. The key objective is to identify Chinese team players in the Indian telecom space.
The move comes in light of growing security concerns arising from China’s cyber espionage activities in India. After the US raised security concerns related to major players in China’s network infrastructure such as Huawei and ZTE, India has taken similar action. Over the past two and a half months, India has banned more than 200 mobile apps that have China-based connectivity and data servers, based on reports of data collection by China. Following this, reports came to light about Chinese private companies offering surveillance of foreign nations to the Chinese government.
Earlier this week, officials with knowledge of the matter stated that the Indian government is seeking to review the bid design for the lowest bidder issued by tech companies, giving preference to Indian players and reducing the influence of companies. Chinese in official projects undertaken by the Government of India. The move is believed to affect the deployment of 5G services in India, as a considerable part of India’s telecom infrastructure comes from Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE.
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