Telecom service providers (TSPs) must give the government access to the critical telecom infrastructure (CTI) as per the new rules. Under the new Telecom Act, 2023, the central government has the power to identify telecom networks as CTI if their disruption could severely impact national security, public health, economy, or safety. As per the rules, the government has to appoint a Chief of Telecom Security Officer (CTSO), according to a report from the Hindustan Times.
The entities who have suffered or faced cyber security incidents will have to report them to the government within six hours, revised from the earlier time of two hours. Six hours is still a very short duration to report compared to the global standards.
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Experts believe that this can cause over-regulation as the telecom sector is also marked as critical information infrastructure under the Information Technology Act. Thus, it also falls under the domain of the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC).
The Indian government has been very wary of the telecom infrastructure in India for the last few years. A new system of trusted vendors was introduced by the center to ensure that no Chinese or "unsafe" vendor can provide critical telecom infrastructure in India. Additionally, the government has asked the telcos to replace the equipment/gear of the Chinese vendors from the existing live networks. In the long run, this will ensure India has safe infrastructure which its neighbours can't exploit.
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Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung are the vendors (foreign ones) that are doing almost all of the business in the country with the telecom players. Samsung is still a new entrant in the 5G space, but it was once the preferred vendor for Reliance Jio when the telco had just started rolling out 4G in the country.
