DoT proposes amendment in licence terms regarding CMS

Central Monitoring System would enable fovernment & its agencies to monitor telephone calls

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed amendments in the licence terms regarding the setting up of the Central Monitoring System (CMS) that would enable the Government and its agencies to monitor telephone calls.

It is stated that the hardware of licencees and software required for monitoring of calls shall be engineered, provided or installed and maintained by the licencees at their own cost.

But the earlier licence terms mention that the respective Government instrumentality shall bear the cost of user end hardware and leased line circuits would be located as per their choice in their premises or in the premises of the licencee.

As part of its plan to set up the CMS, DoT has asked the telecom service providers to ensure connectivity from their premises or servers to the nearest point of interconnect of state-owned Bharat sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) premises.

This would be done through a pair of dark optical fibre with redundancy from where traffic for monitoring by the Government or its agencies, according to a recent discussions.

If dark fibre is not available, telcos may connect through 10 Mbps bandwidth, upgradable to 45 Mbps or higher, till dark fibre connectivity is established.

It was initially decided that BSNL should set up the connectivity but as it does not have last mile connectivity upto the telcos, the Government had proposed for the alternative, on certain terms.