FYI. Should we talk about this in Circumvention?<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Shubhranshu Choudhary</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:shu@cgnet.in">shu@cgnet.in</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 10:21 PM<br>Subject: [bytesforall_readers] IB asks govt to block all net telephony services<br>To: <a href="mailto:bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com">bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com</a><br>
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<h1>IB asks govt to block all net telephony services</h1><span>Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau 15 September 2009, 10:34am IST</span><div>
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NEW DELHI: The Intelligence Bureau has
asked the communication ministry to block all <a style="text-decoration: underline ! important;" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/IB-asks-govt-to-block-all-net-telephony-services/articleshow/5012734.cms#" target="_blank"><font style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;" color="blue"><span style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;">internet </span><span style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;">telephony</span></font></a> (VoIP) services
to and from the country <table style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 8px; margin-bottom: 4px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="left"><tbody><tr><td><br></td></tr></tbody></table><table style="margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt; clear: both;" width="200" align="left">
</table> until the Department of Telecom (DoT) puts in place a
mechanism to track such calls.
<br><br>
The IB is of the view that currently,
India does not have the capabilities to track internet telephony calls —
both domestic & international — and had asked the DoT find an "early
solution to this issue in the interest of national <a style="text-decoration: underline ! important;" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/IB-asks-govt-to-block-all-net-telephony-services/articleshow/5012734.cms#" target="_blank"><font style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;" color="blue"><span style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;">security</span></font></a>".
<br><br>
"In
the absence of Caller Line Identification (CLI) parameters of calls landing from
abroad, it's next to impossible to identify the country of location of the
caller. Moreover, of late a number of service providers in India have started
providing VoIP solutions for making calls both domestics as well as foreign. The
calls passing through the VoIP/IP route contain inadequate parameters rendering
it impossible to trace the actual callers. As DoT had conveyed that it is not
possible to mandate transmission of CLI from abroad, we had approached DoT to
block such calls till a technical solution is found," the IB said in its
communication to the DoT, a copy of which is with ET.
<br><br>
If DoT were to
implement the IB directive, it will impact hundreds of thousands of consumers
who use the internet to make extremely low cost calls to phones and free calls
to computers across the globe. Telcos such as MTNL in Delhi and Mumbai and many
leading <a style="text-decoration: underline ! important;" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/IB-asks-govt-to-block-all-net-telephony-services/articleshow/5012734.cms#" target="_blank"><font style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;" color="blue"><span style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;">ISPs</span></font></a> offer internet telephony services.
<br><br>
In addition, any
consumer with internet access can use services from hundreds of companies such
as Skype, Google, Yahoo! and Window Live, amongst others.
<br><br>
According
to telecom regulator Trai's latest performance indicators report, consumers over
130 million minutes of internet telephony in the January-March quarter 2009.
This report also adds that 34 ISPs in India offer net telephony services in
India legally.
<br><br>
Cyber security expert Vijay Mukhi said that IB should
have issued such directions immediately after the 26/11 terror attacks. "The
terrorists used net telephony as they were aware that India did not have the
technological capabilities to do a live trace of such calls.
<br><br>
In the
US and Europe, all players who offer VoIP services have provisions that allow
governments to track these calls. Many of them have also installed equipment at
their premises to monitor VoIP calls upon orders from governments," he added.
<br><br>
The IB communication to the DoT also addresses a host of other
security related issues, including the presence of Chinese equipment vendors
such as Huawei & ZTE providing equipment such as <a style="text-decoration: underline ! important;" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/IB-asks-govt-to-block-all-net-telephony-services/articleshow/5012734.cms#" target="_blank"><font style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;" color="blue"><span style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;">routers</span></font></a> & switches to
private operators and state-owned BSNL.
<br><br>
The IB has pointed out that
Huawei is using state-owned Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) to manufacture
equipment in India, but did not actually transfer the <a style="text-decoration: underline ! important;" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/IB-asks-govt-to-block-all-net-telephony-services/articleshow/5012734.cms#" target="_blank"><font style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;" color="blue"><span style="color: blue ! important; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 400; font-size: 13.5px;">technology</span></font></a>, thus posing a
security threat to the country.<br><br><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/IB-asks-govt-to-block-all-net-telephony-services/articleshow/5012734.cms" target="_blank">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/IB-asks-govt-to-block-all-net-telephony-services/articleshow/5012734.cms</a><br>
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