India launches beta online portal for “trusted” telecom gear sources: Report

The government has launched an online portal for telecom service providers (TSPs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to procure gear from “trusted sources” as identified by India’s highest cybersecurity office, Mint reported on Monday citing an official source aware of the development.

The beta portal, though, was expected to launch on April 15. It is currently accessible to only a few TSPs and OEMs, the publication added, without naming the companies.

“We had a target of 15 April to launch the beta version of the portal. We have successfully launched it. It is not open to all stakeholders at present. With this, we will hopefully be able to launch the portal on the scheduled date of 15 June,” the official was quoted as saying by the publication.

ET reported on March 31 that the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCSC) will launch the beta portal on April 15 and will notify the categories of gear for which the security code related to trusted sources is applicable.

The online portal will also enable prospective gear makers to track the progress of approval of their applications.

The Department of Telecom last month asked telecom operators–Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea to designate respective nodal officers to coordinate with the designated authority, NCSC, for the trusted sources directive, and share information on a designated portal regarding the company, the products they intend to connect to their network portal to ensure they fall into the ‘trusted sources’ category.

In addition to gear makers, India will also scrutinize chipmakers such as Intel Inc., Qualcomm Technologies, MediaTek, among others for inclusion in the list of trusted sources.