DoT eases security needs for mobile services in border areas

Kolkata: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has scrapped a host of security requirements related to offering mobile services near the country’s international border areas in a clear bid to ring in ease of doing business for operators ahead of the 5G rollouts. The move is also likely to improve exisitng mobile coverage in the border areas.

The DoT has deleted key network security clauses that till now required telcos to locate their radio base stations, cell sites and radio transmitters at considerable distances to ensure mobile signals faded near India’s international borders.

Section 8.1 (i), which deals with security conditions under the Unified Licence (UL) Agreement, required operators to ensure their base stations/radio transmitters are established far away from the international actual border to ensure the radio signals fade out when nearing or when about to cross the border. Telcos, in fact, had to deploy suitable infrastructure to fade and make mobile signals unusable around the border zones. This requirement has been scrapped via a DoT notification on Tuesday.