National Frequency Allocation Plan 2011 Of India

The draft national frequency allocation plan 2011 of India (NFAP 2011) is one of the most important and arguable plan of India. Various government departments have their own interests and concerns that are preventing formulation of a NFAP of India.

The responsibility to formulate the NFAP 2011 rests with the wireless planning and coordination wing (WPCW) department of telecommunications (DoT). WPCW had issued the draft NFAP 2011 in the third week of March upon which various inputs have been provided.

Various government departments and telecom operators have written to the DoT and expressed disagreement with the plan. DoT will send all these views to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), which will come up with the final version of the NFAP 2011.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India, the NFAP 2011 must be legally effective and technologically sound. Presently, issues like Encryption, VOIP, Satellite Phones, Spectrum Allocation, etc are not properly addressed by Indian Government, informs Dalal.

The NFAP 2011 would be an integral part of the national telecom policy of India hence it is essential that we must have a new and effective telecom policy for India. In fact, the national telecom policy of India 2011 has already been proposed and it may cover NFAP 2011 and allied matters as well.

Let us see how effective national telecom policy of India 2011 and NFAP 2011 would finally be.

Encryption Policy Of India

Use of encryption has many benefits. From ensuring the security and integrity of electronic transactions, encryption also helps in avoiding illegal cell phone tapping and e-surveillance by private persons that is rampant in India.

There are no privacy laws in India and data protection laws in India. This means that sensitive and personal data is open for all sorts of abuses. For example, telemarketing woes in India are well known where privacy is openly and blatantly violated by telemarketing companies.

Similarly, data stealing through cyber espionage is well known in India. With a cyber criminal friendly cyber law of India, it is very difficult to punish the cyber criminals who engage in trans border cyber espionage.

Encryption has also become essential to defeat the illegal and unconstitutional electronic sniffing and e-surveillance approach of India. We have no lawful interception law in India and telephone tapping in India is done in an unconstitutional manner.

Indian government is pressuring companies like Skype, Google/Gmail, Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry, etc for practically using no encryption services for their communications. For instance, India is pressurising Blackberry for providing unencrypted e-mail and telecom communications in India. By threatening to ban Blackberry services in India, the government has already obtained access to Blackberry’s messenger services. Now India is forcing the telecom service providers of India to drop Blackberry’s services if it does not provide free and unencrypted access to its services in India.

Encryption policy is also important for ensuring strong and effective telecom policy of India. However, encryption is an unresolved enigma in India. We have no encryption laws in India and despite the suggestions of many experts’ encryption laws and regulations in India are still missing.

India is compromising the Mobile Security of India and Mobile Governance in India by insisting upon a Weak Encryption Infrastructure, says Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India. Mobile Cyber Security in India is not upto the mark and unencrypted communication would further increase the risks, claims Dalal. New Telecom Policy of India 2011 is in pipeline and it would be a good idea if Mobile Security Policy of India is also made a part of the same, suggests Dalal. The proposed Telecom Security Council of India can take this issue when constituted, suggests Dalal.

Let us hope that Indian government would consider and accept the suggestions of experts and would come up with a sound and effective encryption policy of India.