Comments
Etisalat DB's international long-distance telephony plan is in trouble with security agencies yet to give clearance to the company for setting up gateways in the country.
Intelligence agencies have raised security concerns about Etisalat DB's parent company — the UAE-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp.
This comes even as the company's mobile licences are under the scanner for alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam.
According to the International Long Distance (ILD) licence conditions, Etisalat DB is supposed to set up at least one gate way within three years to fulfil its roll out obligation.
The company was given a licence in October 2008. Therefore, if the company does not set up a gateway before October 5 this year, then the Department of Telecom will encash the performance bank guarantee submitted by the company.
The bigger problem for the company is that, in effect, without security clearance Etislat DB will not be able to start the services because gateway is the physical place where the domestic network is connected to the international network.
This is critical to the international telephony business as without it the company will not be able to take the telephone traffic out of country.
With just about one month for the deadline to expire, the DoT has now written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to give a final view on whether the company should be permitted to set up gateways or not.
Varying views
While the Intelligence Bureau has recommended that the company may be allowed to start limited services such as voice, fax and SMS services, the Research and Analysis Wing has said that they do not recommend granting clearance to the company for setting up ILD gateways in Mumbai unless security concerns are addressed and demonstrated. Since the two agencies had varying views, the DoT has referred the issue to the MHA for a final decision.
When contacted, a senior executive from Etisalat DB said that they are awaiting clearance from the authorities and have not heard from DoT on the issue.
“We have demonstrated all our systems to the intelligence agencies in compliance with the licence conditions. We are hopeful of getting clearance,” he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.