TelecomLive March 2026

CMMI Level 5 Certification from “UK Cert”! www.telecomlive.com 21 TelecomLIVE March 2026 CCMI Institute The importance of a genuine CMMI level certification can be understood from its inventor ie CMMI Institute. Itsweb site states, “The Capability Maturity Model Int egrat i on (CMMI )® i s a proven set of global best practices that drives business performance t h r o u g h b u i l d i n g a n d benchmarking key capabilities. Originally created for the US Department of Defense to assess the quality and capability of their software contractors, CMMI models have expanded beyond software engineering to help any organization in any industry build, improve, and measure their capabilities and improve performance. F o r o v e r 3 0 y e a r s , h i g h - pe r f o rmi ng o r gan i z a t i on s around the world have achieved demons t rab l e , sus t a i nab l e business resultswithCMMI. D e s c r i p t i v e P r a c t i c e s Focusedon Improvement CMMI best practices focus on what needs to be done to improve performance and align opera- tions to business goals. Designed to be understandable, accessible, flexible, and integrate with other methodologies such as agile, ISACA's CMMI models help organizations understand their current level of capability and performance and offer a guide to optimize business results. CMMI is built on trust, rigor, and integrity. Our quality framework ensures that appraisals, certifi- cations, and partner-delivered services meet consistent global standards. Through auditing, professional conduct, fraud prevention, and transparent po l i c i es , we saf eguard the credibility of results and protect the long-term value of the CMMI brand.” For providing certification, CMMI Institute has empanelled entities across the globe which has trained manpower for proper audit. Court proceedings As NICSI did not take action on its representations, Karix filed a writ petition challenging the decision of NICSI on the ground that OneXtel submitted CMMI L5 certification fromUK Cert, which is illegitimate. Hearing took place on March 24 & 25. During the hearing, Karix argued that UK Certi is not authorised to issue the said certifi- cate, which can only be issued by entities authorised by the US headquarteredCMMI Institute. But, NICSI maintained that a bidder can provide certification from any entity. Further, NICSI did not intend to create monopoly of a particular organization in the certification. Its counsel cited various other tenders in which certification from UK Cert or other entities, which are not affiliated to CMMI Institute, were accepted. On the other hand, the counsel of OneXtel also argued that it got the certification from UK Cert only after extensive rigorous audit running into 5 or 6 six months. But the facts are before us. The court has reserved the judgement. Conclusion NICSI is a body dealing in the IT sector. It is expected to know the importance of such certifications. Looking at the ease of availability of such crucial certifications from UK Cert, definitely NICSI must not be looking for such a certification. Something is wrong somewhere. Instead of cover-up, NCISI was expected to take corrective mea- sures once the issue has come to its notice. If knowingly or unknow- ingly, its officers had been making mistakes in other tenders also, then it cannot be a ground to ignore the same in this tender also. If it goes unpunished this time as well, then it will unleashhavoc in the IT sector. We sought a response from OneXtel, but they have kept quiet so far. The story will be updated once we get their response. the technical marks, nothing was specified. On June 25, 2025, Corrigen- dum-X was issued in which marks were specified for L3/L4/L5 certification as 15 marks. It was also stated that if a bidder does not have it, it must give an undertaking that it would provide the same if selected for award of contract, but for such bidders nomarkswould be given. On July 21, 2025, Corrigendum- XIII was issued in which marks were increased for L3/L4 certifica- tion to 20 marks from 15, and for L5 certification to 30 marks from 20. The option of providing a certificate, later before the award of contract, was removed. So, these frequent changes show that having a certificate was crucial for becoming eligible in the tender without which the bid would be outrightly rejected. Dispute During the evaluation of the tender, OneXtel Ltd emerged as the L1 bidder, while Netcore Cloud Pvt Ltd emerged as the L2 bidder. NICSI empanelled OneXtel on December 26, 2025. The L3 bidder was Karix Mobile Pvt Ltd. In respect of CMMI certification, OneXtel submitted the certificate fromUKCert. Suddenly, Karix realised that CMMI Certificate submitted by OneXtel is not from authorised agency of CMMI Institute, US. On January 15, 2026 it sent an email to the concerned officers of NICSI pointing out the deficiency in the OneXtel bid. It also sent a letter to CMMI, US, which vide emails dated 21 & 27 January 2026 stated that UK Cert is not authorised to issue CMMI Certificate, and the certificate issued by UK Cert to OneXtel is thus illegitimate. Based on the representation fromKarix, NICSI also wrote to UK Cert and CMMI, US. UK Cert avoided answer ing ques t ion related to its legitimacy of issuing certificate. It just responded that it has issued such a certificate to OneXtel which is valid.