The European telecom vendors Nokia and Ericsson, UK-based Cisco and Indian vendor Tejas are among the first wave of telecom equipment vendors that bagged the trusted sources approval. The National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) provided its approval to the above-mentioned vendors. On the other hand, Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei are yet to complete their documentation process in order to be eligible for the NCSC approval.
NCSC Approval For Trusted Sources
Recently, Tejas Networks was acquired by Tata Sons’ Panatone Finvest, which is the only domestic telecom equipment vendor that had received the approval. French identity-related security services provider IDEMIA, an industrial IoT solutions provider Proscend, Dori Software and PC Solutions have already received the trusted sources approval from the NCSC, which is the designated authority.
However, the telecom operators in India are not able to place purchase orders even with the vendors who received the trusted product approval. Regarding this, a person familiar with the matter told ET Telecom that this is an initial step in the whole process. For now, it does not mean much as the companies that received the trusted sources approval can get their equipment rejected in cases of the authority’s dissatisfaction. The first set of trusted products could arrive between the end of this month or early in December.
Lt General (retd) Rajesh Pant, the National Cyber Security coordinator stated that the National Security Committee on Telecom is meeting each month to decide on the approval of both trusted Sources and trusted Products. The details of these will be informed to the telecom operators who submitted their requirements on their portal. The approval process debuted on October 21 and they are working as per the Cabinet’s decision.
From another source, it has been revealed that the Chinese equipment maker Huawei is yet to complete the process and is all set to meet the obligations of the NCSC to get the approval of trusted sources. On the other hand, ZTE had completed the process and is awaiting the authority’s approval.
Earlier Pant stated that Huawei and ZTE were not banned from taking part in the process but they will need to undergo the scrutiny as the other vendors. It was also stated by a European vendor’s senior executive that there are increased chances for the component or product to be made in China, which might cancel the approval for these vendors.
