Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said legal backing for Right of Way (RoW) will be in place by December, and launched the GatiShakti Sanchar portal that will centralise and speed up approvals for laying of fibre and tower installations, as the country gears up for 5G roll-out.

The GatiShakti Sanchar portal will facilitate centralised Right of Way (RoW) approvals.
That will be our next step. Moreover, all the portals that are there, especially Gati Shakti portal, railway portal, highway portal, and others…integration of those…We will be working on these two technological and legal aspects,” Vaishnaw said.
Work has started on these two fronts already, and the integration of portals is expected in the next 3-4 months while the timelines for providing legal backing is December-end.

Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) Director-General, TR Dua said, “The launch of this portal is a game changer and another milestone for the telecom industry, with faster rollout of digital infrastructure across the nation and cutting down the earlier delays”.

Starting 15-June-2021, the telecom service providers are mandatorily required to connect only those new devices designated as ‘Trusted Products’.

The government on Tuesday has launched the Trusted Telecom Portal — http://www.trustedtelecom.gov.in — signalling the coming into effect of the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector (NSDTS).

Consequently, with effect from Tuesday (June 15), the telecom service providers (TSPs) are mandatorily required to connect only those new devices designated as ‘Trusted Products’ from ‘Trusted Sources’, the National Security Council Secretariat said in a statement.

The Cabinet on December 16 had accorded approval for the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector, which was to come into effect after 180 days of the date of approval.

The government has made a necessary amendment regarding the license conditions for the provision of telecommunication services by the TSPs.

The portal was developed and implemented by CDoT, an R&D unit of the government.
“The challenging task was completed on schedule despite the debilitating effect over the course of the pandemic on the development team of CDoT, the hosting provider RailTel, dedicated staff of the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) and the supporting stakeholder representatives from the TSPs and equipment vendors,” the statement said.

Trusted Products
‘Trusted Products’ are products whose critical components and the products themselves are sourced from Trusted Sources. The TSPs will be provided access to log into the Trusted Telecom Portal and indicate the telecom products and the vendor they intend to procure the products.

The details of these vendors, the products, their critical components and their sources are then populated into the portal by the TSPs and respective vendors, who will also be provided access to the portal. An assessment is made of the vendors and the sources of the components to determine Trusted Sources and Trusted Products which are then intimated to the vendor concerned and the applicant TSPs to make their procurements.

However, the directive does not envisage mandatory replacement of the existing equipment already inducted in the networks of the TSPs. Therefore, it will also not affect ongoing annual maintenance contracts (AMC) or updates to existing equipment already inducted in the network as on date of effect of the directive. Hence no disruption to the existing networks will be created due to this Directive, the statement added.