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Indian govt plans to block all Internet telephony for security purposes

by Mihir Patkar / Sep 16, 2009 12:02:12 IST / Tags: security, TRAI, Department of Telecom, Internet telephony, Voice over internet protocol

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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 premier telecom body, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), to block all Internet telephony until security systems to trace the same are in place.

The Intelligence Bureau is of the view that currently, India does not have the capabilities to track internet telephony calls – both domestic & international – and had asked the DoT find an “early solution to this issue in the interest of national security”.

The ‘recommendation’ comes in the wake of last year’s 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, where the terrorists used this medium for communication.

“The terrorists used net telephony as they were aware that India did not have the technological capabilities to do a live trace of such calls,” Cyber security expert Vijay Mukhi told Economic Times. “In the US and Europe, all 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.”

According to a report by telecom regulator TRAI, consumers used over 130 million minutes of Internet telephony in the January-March quarter of this year. This report also adds that 34 ISPs in India offer net telephony services in India legally.

“This is a good move and it will also make the ISPs compliant to law,” Mukhi told rediff.com. “We cannot obviously stop all the players as there are thousands of them but it can help to a large extent by blocking all the main players.”

“This will hit consumers very badly. Not only are the calls cheaper, the sound quality is also much better. The government could work out an agreement with the main players in this regard. Consumers should not suffer as a result of government’s inaction,” Mukhi added.

The jury is still out on the necessity of such an extreme step. On the one hand, the important of security cannot be taken lightly any more in the light of recent events across the world; on the other hand, curbing advances in technology that enable better communications do not benefit anyone. What’s your take? Let us know in the comments section below…

Sources: Economic Times, Rediff

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8 Comments

Oct 23,2009, by Suhas

I personally feel that this is a good step, but is being implemented in the wrong way. Security in communication is ALWAYS important, but not a the cost of customer hindrance. Hence what the government should do more is to push towards increasing India's technological capability in being able trace VoIP calls. I did read in a newspaper article about this which also stated that some major players are not ready to co-operate with the Indian government though they are helping U.S and UK governments.Not sure how much of this is true. I think the only positive thing this ban would cause is to improve India's technological capabilities (if there is a lot of customer pressure for that) although people can take this ban in the wrong sense and cause more negative than positive.

Sep 17,2009, by namaskar

just fun, they may have received huge amount of money form telecom sector (airtel, bsnl.mtnl,reliance, aircel, vodafone, and other captialist.....nothing else

Sep 17,2009, by b

They should ban trousers, since terrorists use them. That way their intentions will be clear... If someone is to eavesdrop on my conversations, only the CBI should be allowed, and that too under the authority of someone outside the executive, like a [special] court. After all why do we have arrest warrants? Banning Skype is out of the question. Saying that it'll be 'unbanned' after their wiretapping setup is in place is like saying we can walk until they fix every road. And if the gentle Manmohan Singh decides to become a dictator, the hardware/software/legal-ware that'll exist as a result will make banning anything he pleases far easier. Buy the cops some flak jackets first, and I'll buy your argument.

Sep 16,2009, by Aswin

Banning VOIP is not an solution. Find out or install the required to trace the VOIP calls.

Sep 16,2009, by wily

It will be no good. Simply banning VoIP won't protect the nation they need to identify all the dimensions of the problem which is much much deeper and lies in their system.They should strengthen their security from within and start hiring eligible candidates who could solve this problem and they being able to trace the call rather than banning it.

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