1-Apr-2022: Security of Wi-Fi Connections in Public Places
Government has taken adequate steps to ensure security of Wi-Fi connections in public places. Intentionally damaging or tampering with telegraphs or unlawfully attempting to learn the contents of messages is a punishable offence as per the Section 24, 25 & 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act. There are provisions in the form of clause no. 37.1 to 37.4 in the license granted to all licensees which mandates deployment of appropriate mechanisms to meet the requirement of confidentiality, security and privacy of data. Moreover, DoT has issued instructions in Feb’2009 to all Internet Service Providers regarding safeguards in provision of Wi-Fi Internet services in the delicensed frequency band for secure use of Wi-Fi services including those provided at public places. Further, a document on Security in Public Wi-Fi Implementations-Best Practices have been issued to Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
The Security related Guidelines by Government under PM-WANI scheme are as detailed below:
- Provisions of Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) for storage of user data for one year to ensure compliance with legal provisions, as required.
- User data privacy is to be ensured by App Providers and PDOAs. Complete user data and usage logs is to be stored within India.
- Provisions by the App Provider, PDOA and Central Registry Provider to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of any information about a third party to whom it provides the service.
9-Dec-2020: Cabinet approves setting up of Public Wi-Fi Networks by Public Data Office Aggregators to provide public Wi-Fi service through Public Data Offices without levy of any License Fee
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for the proposal of DoT for setting up of Public Wi-Fi Networks by Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) to provide public Wi-Fi service through Public Data Offices (PDOs) spread across length and breadth of the country to accelerate proliferation of Broadband Internet services through Public Wi-Fi network in the country. There shall be no license fee for providing Broadband Internet through these public Wi-Fi networks.
The proposal will promote the growth of Public Wi-Fi Networks in the country and, in turn, will help in proliferation of Broadband Internet, enhancement of income and employment and empowerment of people.
Salient Features:
This Public Wi-Fi Access Network Interface will be known as PM-WANI.PM-WANI eco-system will be operated by different players as described herein under:
- Public Data Office (PDO): It will establish, maintain, and operate only WANI compliant Wi-Fi Access Points and deliver broadband services to subscribers.
- Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA): It will be an aggregator of PDOs and perform the functions relating to Authorization and Accounting.
- App Provider: It will develop an App to register users and discover WANI compliant Wi-Fi hotspots in the nearby area and display the same within the App for accessing the internet service.
- Central Registry: It will maintain the details of App Providers, PDOAs, and PDOs. To begin with, the Central Registry will be maintained by C-DoT.
Objectives
While no registration would be required for PDOs, PDOAs and App Providers will get themselves registered with DoT through online registration portal (SARALSANCHAR; https://saralsanchar.gov.in) of DoT, without paying anyregistration fee.Registration shall be granted within 7 days of the application.
This is expected to be more business friendly and in line with efforts for ease of doing business.COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated delivery of stable and high speed Broadband Internet (data) services to an increasingly large number of subscribers in the country including areas which do not have 4G mobile coverage. This can be achieved by deployment of Public Wi-Fi.
Further, the proliferation of public Wi-Fi will not only create employment but also enhance disposable incomes in the hands of small and medium entrepreneurs and boost the GDP of the country.
Proliferation of Broadband Services through public Wi-Fi is a step towards digital India and consequential benefit thereon.
No License Fee for providing broadband internet services using public Wi-Fi Hotspots will massively encourage its proliferation and penetration across the length and breadth of the country. Availability and use of Broadband will enhance incomes, employment, quality of life, ease of doing business etc.
31-Mar-2022: Cashless treatment for Road Accident Victims
NHAI is planning cashless treatment facility for the road accident victims, including Drivers, Passengers, Pedestrians/Cyclists on identified National Highway stretches between Delhi-Mumbai/ Mumbai-Chennai/ Chennai-Kolkata/ Kolkata-Agra & Agra-Delhi Corridors of the Golden Quadrilateral (NH) for treatment of bodily injury caused by and arising out of road accident. This will cover the immediate needs of hospitalization of the victims for the first 48 hours, from the time of hospitalization or providing necessary treatment, whichever occurs earlier, up to a cost of Rs. 30,000/- starting from the time of the ambulance reaching the accident site, as recorded in the Control Room.
The success of the scheme may be assessed only after the scheme is implemented on ground after conclusion of the bidding process and on-boarding of the selected insurance company.
The tender for the cashless treatment facility on all four arms of the Golden Quadrilateral stretch i.e. Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai, Chennai-Kolkata and Kolkata-Delhi has been invited from Insurance Companies registered with IRDAI or enabled by a Central legislation to undertake insurance related activities for at least the last 5 years having a claim settlement ratio of not less than 85% in the last 3 years. Based on the learnings from the implementation of the pilot scheme, the same may be extended to other National Highways as well.
25-Mar-2022: Phone Tracing Under CEIR Project
The Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) project has been launched in Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra licensed service areas (LSAs) in a phased manner to facilitate blocking and tracing of lost and stolen mobile phones. As per the reports from CEIR system, the request for blocking of 169667, 8315 and 11848 International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) have been received till 20.03.2022 for Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra LSAs respectively. The traceability data for 110239, 4586 and 8317 IMEIs have been made available to police of Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra respectively to facilitate recovery of handsets.
CEIR is a multi-stakeholder system where respective stakeholders including Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Service Providers, Police, Mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone subscribers have a limited access as per their defined roles and responsibilities. Currently, this includes the information to the subscriber about the make & model corresponding to IMEI of his/her mobile handset, information to mobile phone manufacturers about genuineness of IMEI during import of consignment of mobile phones etc.
30-Dec-2019: Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) launched
The Union Minister for Communications, Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that the Mobile Security should be our National Priority because the mobile handset became an important tool for all online activities. He launched a Web Portal called ‘Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR)’ for the customers of Delhi to facilitate blocking and tracing of Stolen/Lost Mobile Phones in Delhi.
Government has decided to give 5G Spectrum for trial to all operators in the country. This may take few years to launch it fully all over the country. UPI Payments interface has become primary means for all online money transactions in the country and we need to make it a Global beacon for making Indian rupee much stronger.
This is the age of communication and communication is power, and this is the age of technology and the technology is power. While we exploit use and make optimum involvement of technology for development the equally smart criminals induce technology for their own end. Therefore, we need a technology that safeguards our interests.
Aadhar is a digital identity to confirm our physical identity and the digital India is for digital inclusion. Digital India is empowering ordinary Indian to the power of technology which is leading to digital inclusion. Industry should be more innovative and Indian players should imbibe new innovations in IT.
In the NCR Delhi itself the mobile theft cases are increasing to the tune of 40,000 cases per year and there should be a mechanism to address this problem. He requested the Minister for Communication to consider the integration of Zonal Integrated Police Network (ZIPNET) with the CEIR for better functioning.
The Tele-density in the country has increased to 242 mobiles for 100 populations and the mobile handset became a means to fulfil all day-to-day requirements. Therefore, securing mobile with a system is the need of the hour.
International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is supposed to be a unique identity of a mobile phone device. A phone with one/two slots of SIM Card is programmed with one/two IMEI number as the case may be. IMEI number being programmable, some miscreants do reprogram the IMEI number, which results in cloning of IMEI causing multiple devices with same IMEI number. As on date, there are many cases of clones/duplicated IMEI handsets in the network.
If such IMEI is blocked, a large number of mobile phones will get blocked being handsets with same IMEI causing inconvenience to many genuine customers. Thus, there is a need to eliminate duplicate/fake IMEI mobile phones from the network.
Accordingly, this project called Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) system has been undertaken by the DoT for addressing security, theft and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets.
The launch of Project in Delhi will facilitate as follows:
- Request for blocking of stolen or lost mobile phone by customers.
- Blocking of such mobile phones across mobile networks.
- Allowing services to other existing customers have mobile phones with same IMEI number.
- Sharing of traceability date with Police Authorities.
- Unblocking of recovered/found stolen or lost mobile phones.
14-Jul-2019: India is setting up a mobile phone handsets database.
The National Telecom Policy of 2012 calls for the establishment of a National Mobile Property Registry to address the issue of “security, theft, and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets”. Based on this, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications initiated a Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) for mobile service providers.
The DoT issued a memorandum in July 2017 announcing the CEIR with a pilot project led by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited in Maharashtra. In January 2018, this project was handed over to the Centre for Development of Telematics (CDoT). Now, it is all set to roll out.
Based on a 2008 order from the DoT, every mobile network provider in India has an Equipment Identity Register (EIR), or a database of the phones connected to its network. These EIRs will now share information with a single central database, the CEIR. In essence, it will be a repository of information on all mobile phones connected to networks across India. There were over 1,026 million active wireless phone connections by the end of 2018, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
As per the DoT’s 2017 memorandum, the CEIR will have information on the device’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number (every phone or mobile broadband device has this unique 15 digit code that precisely identifies the device), model, version, and “other information”. It will also know if the phone is blacklisted, and the reason why it has been blacklisted.
Phones are identified based on the IMEI number, which you can find under the battery in many mobiles or by dialling ‘*#06#’ on the device. Mobile phone manufacturers assign IMEI numbers to each device based on ranges allotted to them by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association. Dual SIM phones will have two IMEI numbers.
Such centralised databases are meant to identify and block stolen or illegal mobile phones across networks. Currently, when a customer reports a mobile phone as missing or stolen, mobile service providers have the ability to blacklist the phone’s IMEI in their EIRs and block it from accessing their network. But if the SIM is changed to a new network, it can continue to be in use. With a CEIR, all network operators will be aware that the phone is blacklisted.
The CEIR will also access the GSMA’s database of IMEI numbers to check whether the phone is authentic. There are cases of phones being in use with duplicate IMEI numbers, or with all zeroes instead of an authentic IMEI number.
Most importantly, as per the DoT’s 2017 memorandum, the CEIR will be able to block services to subscribers. This ability had rested with individual networks till now. The memorandum also mentions enabling “IMEI-based lawful interception”, which means allowing legal authorities to use CEIR data.
In its 2010 consultation paper on “issues relating to blocking of IMEI for lost/stolen mobile handsets,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) raises a key issue with the CEIR — who should maintain such a high-value database? Should it be the service provider, or a neutral third party?
In their responses to the consultation paper, many major service providers preferred having a third party, ranging from international bodies to TRAI itself as suggested by the BSNL. The CDoT, which is reportedly readying to roll out the service, is an autonomous entity under the DoT.
Another major issue is cloning, or reprogramming stolen or unauthorised mobile phones to attach existing genuine IMEI numbers. Blocking cloned IMEI numbers could result in the authentic ones also being blocked. So, the IMEI Cloning and Duplication Restriction (ICDR) software is to be integrated in the CEIR.