The Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (IT), Government of India wrote a letter to all unified access service licensees, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), all cellular mobile telephone service licensee(s) in telecommunication circle service areas and metro service areas to whom CMTS licenses were issued prior to 2001, and all cellular mobile telephone service licensee(s) including BSNL and MTNL to whom CMTS licenses were issued in 2001 or thereafter on May 31, 2011 regarding amendments to the unified access service license agreement for security related concerns for expansion of telecommunication services in various zones of the country.

In exercise of the power vested in the licensor under clause 5.1 and clause 41.5 of Unified Access Service (UAS) License Agreement, inter-alia, reserving the right to modify at any time the terms and conditions of the license in the interest of national security and public interest or for the provision of TELEGRAPH, the licensor hereby deletes the existing clauses 41.6(A) and 41.6(B) along with their sub-clauses and inserts, with immediate effect:

  • The license shall be completely and totally responsible for security of their networks
  • In furtherance of organizational security policy, the licensee shall audit their network or get the network audited from security point of view once a year from a network audit and certification agency
  • The licensee shall induct only those network elements into his telecom network, which have been got tested as per relevant contemporary Indian or International security standards
  • The licensee shall include all contemporary security related features related to communication security as prescribed under relevant security standards while procuring the equipment and implement all such contemporary features into the network