Sharing source code to external labs risky: Telco group

NEW DELHI: Sharing the source code — a company’s intellectual property — to third-party laboratories by original telecom equipment makers would increase the security risk, and a mandatory adherence to security conditions in the licensing framework would not require it either, a telecom lobby group said.

“Source code is an intellectual property of a vendor and is most secured. Sharing it with third-party labs increases the risk of vulnerabilities,” the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director-general SP Kochhar told ETTelecom.

The Delhi-based group represents Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea as well as multinational vendors such as Swedish Ericsson, Finnish Nokia, and Chinese Huawei and ZTE.

Gear makers are, however, averse to India’s move seeking source code citing its confediantiality and commercial value. But, the government has further asked to share such security compliance-related information to external or private sector labs which the vendors fear may infringe their copyrights.