Earlier this year, the Indian government asked the telcos to not source their network equipment or gear from any company that’s not in the trusted category. The government-appointed the National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) as the designated body for identifying companies as trusted or not. Only the trusted companies are allowed to manufacture equipment for the Indian telcos. The NCSC’s trusted telecom equipment portal is supposed to list all the companies that are safe to source equipment from. But because of the same, the telcos are facing severe delays in getting equipment.
Telcos Not Purchasing Equipment to be Safe
According to a Business Standard report, the Indian telcos aren’t purchasing equipment from the companies because they are worried if they will have to change it in the near future if the government deems it unsafe or untrustworthy. Because of the same, the companies aren’t manufacturing the equipment in advance because they don’t want to tie their money up in unsold inventory. The government hasn’t cleared the application of the telecom gear makers products as safe, and that is why the equipment makers aren’t getting fresh orders from the telcos. This will certainly hurt their revenues, and the same will continue until the time government expedites the process of certification of the products as ‘trustworthy’. It would be natural for the gear makers to feel unsafe if there are any more delays from the government. Further, when the approval from the government comes, and the gear makers start manufacturing the products, it will take weeks before they can be shipped to the operators. The existence of NCSC is important given the security and privacy it will ensure Indians. But at the same time, an efficient process to run the portal is required, and the government needs to find it soon because if there are delays such as this every time, it will lead to longer network deployment times and increased costs for the operators.
