No ban on Blackberry services: Govt

http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/14black.htm

IMHO, the officials at MHA are not over-zealous but are following the “better safe than sorry” approach. This is because, as we all are aware, India is the worst affected country by terrorism after Iraq.

There is an old saying… ” It only happens in India! “

While this move by the Govt may be a little ill conceived but very country has a sovereign right to protect itself..US carriers share ALL data (bills, CDRs, Ip addresses, web behavior) with agencies and CALEA is one of the most intrusive laws around…..

But when any developing country does anything suddenly bloggers get all excited…..

This Blackberry issue is more to do with the HOME MINISTRY ie. INTERNAL SECURITY rather than the DoT and TRAI. As a macro concept, the powers that be still believe that ALL COMMUNICATIONS in the Republic of India need to be accessible to big brother “in the interest of national security”. Thus imho the VoIP controversy had more to do with monitoring ability and less to do with milking licenses for commercial reasons. MHA is scared that they wont be able to trace calls on VoIP the same way that they can do on GSM/CDMA/Fixed.

Isn’t the PSTN issue relevant only for Skype Out and PC to phone services? My impression is that for PC to PC VoIP, although they haven’t put this in writing, they are clearly not ok with it. Anyway, one positive outcome of this discussion is that the next time i’m at the ministry I’ll get them to come on the record on this issue :-) More power to watchdogs like you!

The debate that I suggested we continue on my blog was another issue altogether – your contention that indian tech media likes portraying sarkari types as idiots – i’ve put a detailed post on that so would love to see your response :-)

Good to know that the original reporter has already contacted the relevant authorities. As I said in my previous comment, then I would have expected that this would have been mentioned in the story as well. This does two things – it puts them under pressure to respond and it gives the readers the assurance that the publishers will followup with a story when and if they receive a response. Otherwise it feels like a drive-by shooting.

In the case of VoIP, TRAI has made a logical regulatory guidelines. Many in the industry may not agree with their logic and would like to get a more favorable regulation. But that is a different story. Let me share my understanding of TRAI advisory. There are no restriction in VoIP except while interconnecting to PSTN. There are only two ways to interconnect to Indian PSTN: at the international gateways with International settlement charges; at the domestic gateways at a special settlement charges. The latter requires special license and the fees are not insignificant. We may not agree with the position they have taken that PSTN interconnection is a revenue source and they have decided to milk it. True believers of VoIP should not pay any attention to it because after all PSTN is living on borrowed times.

Can you please give me some reference where the government has claimed that Skype is illegal, because TRAI advisory does not say so. I suspect that Skype would like to interconnect at domestic gateways and that is the source of contention. In a previous post, Om Malik quoted a news story that said BPOs will be declared illegal because they are using VoIP. That report went unchallenged, when the real story is that BPOs were interconnecting to PSTN at domestic gateways. So let us be fair and also show that we understand the other side’s line of reasoning even as we disagree with them.

Hi – i don’t know who the other Abhi is (though the FIRST comment abhi is me) but you can confirm that I’m the editor of Tech2.com by emailing me (my first name as spelt in this comment at tech2 dotcom)

Firstly great to see your attitude that you’re having fun and not getting personal like many commenters :-)

On the VoIP front, i think the scorn is directed more at the fact that DoT seriously expects the likes of Skype to apply for a VoIP license and thus become “legal” in India.

As for the piece itself, we’re India’s leading tech news and reviews site by traffic and as part of the Network 18 group, we’re hardcore mainstream in credibility though very “New Media” as (the other) abhi said in writing style – mix of news, opinion and even humour. Yes, our colleague from sister outfit CNBC-TV18 who broke this story HAS asked for confirmation from the MHA and DoT but not got a response so far. That doesn’t stop us from reporting the FACT that CNBC has filed this report quoting its sources.

And finally on your point of tech media showing regulators as Luddites .. well, I think we should carry that debate on at my blog (chakravyu dot com) where i’ve put up a post – one incident every year (since i’ve been on the india tech beat) that shows govt being clueless on tech. Let me know if you agree!