Govt mandates lawful interception of satcom, bars data flow overseas

The Department of Telecom on Monday issued stringent security norms mandating legal interception of satellite communication services and barred companies from linking connection of users in any form with any terminal or facility located outside the country's border as well as processing of their data overseas.

The security rules also mandate service providers to indigenise at least 20 per cent of their ground segment of the satellite network within years of their establishment in the country.

The move assumes significance as the government is, for the first time, gearing up to open satellite communication service for the general public and needs to put measures in place to avoid any misuse of the services by criminal elements, especially terrorists.

Key players like Elon Musk-led Starlink, Bharti Group-backed OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications are in fray to provide satcom services in India.

According to the instruction, the satcom service licence holder will require security clearances for specific gateway and hub locations in India and compliance to monitoring, interception facilities and equipment requirements.

"The Monitoring and Lawful Interception shall be provided as per the licensing condition(s) at the gateway/point of presence (PoP)/network control and monitoring centre (NCMC) /any equivalent facility. The LIS/LIM system shall be integrated with centralised monitoring system (CMS)/integrated monitoring system (IMS)," the guidelines said.

The rules mandate satcom firms to demonstrate system capabilities with respect to security aspects, including monitoring, to the Department of Telecom (DoT) or its authorised representatives before starting operations in India.

The satcom service provider will need to demarcate special monitoring zones within 50 kilometers of international border, along the territorial borders and along coastal borders covering EEZ (exclusive economic zone) for monitoring of user activities by law enforcement and security agencies like intelligence bureau, armed forces, police etc.

The norms mandate service providers to ensure that the location of its user terminals or satellite phones or any other sensitive information pertaining to the user should not be visible or accessible at any location abroad.

Like telecom operators, the satcom players will also need to block websites that are blocked in the country.

The satcom service providers have been mandated to ensure that "no user terminal shall be able to access the network from outside the geo-fenced coverage area or through gateway situated outside India".

The satcom providers will need to submit an undertaking that it shall not copy and decrypt the Indian telecom data outside India, as per the rules.

"The licensee shall provide real time monitoring to ensure that no user traffic originating from, or destined for India is being routed through any gateway/ PoPs outside Indian territory. The Indian user traffic shall not be routed through any Gateway/PoP located abroad or any space system, which is not part of satellite/constellation used for providing service," the rule said.

The devices registered in India will not be allowed to latch on to any other gateway located out of Indian territory.

The government has already issued licences to Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications while Starlink is yet to get final approval.

The satcom players will be able to start their services after allocation of radio waves frequencies.

The rules are largely expected to be approved by the government based on recommendation in works from telecom regulator Trai.