The CTO of an Indian telecom operator can't be a foreigner ?

As per a news item reported in economic times "The government on Thursday notified the enhancement of foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom from 49% to 74%. All companies have been given three months time to comply with the revised norms and thereafter compliance reports will have to be submitted on a six-monthly basis. The notification follows the Union Cabinet’s approval of the 74% FDI cap in March, after over 18 months of dithering on the issue. While FDI up to 49% will continue to be on the automatic route, it would require the approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) if the limit were to cross 49%. FIPB is also empowered to note that the investment is not coming from countries of concern or unfriendly entities, the government said in a statement. As reported earlier, the Cabinet when clearing the new guidelines had incorporated a series of additional norms, especially on the controversial issue of remote access (RA), to address the concerns of security and intelligence agencies as well as the defence ministry. The provision for RA will allow network majors such as Motorola and Ericsson to monitor the networks of Indian operators from locations outside the country. The Cabinet had cleared all other outstanding issues, except RA, pertaining to 74% FDI in telecom during a meeting on December 8, 2006. The guidelines allow foreigners to hold key positions like chairman, MD, CEO and CFO of telecom companies, subject to clearance from the home ministry on an yearly basis. However, majority of directors on the board will have to be Indian citizens. Besides, the chief officer in charge of technical network operations and the chief security officer have to be resident Indian citizens. Additionally, for security reasons, domestic traffic, which is identified by the licensor, cannot not be hauled or routed to any place outside India. Service providers are also required to take adequate and timely measures to ensure that the information transacted through a network by the subscribers is secure and protected. According to the guidelines for RA, telecom companies can extend this provision only from certain approved locations with prior approval from the department of telecom and other security agencies. Operators should keep an audit trail of all RA activities for a period of six months and these must be provided on request to the DoT or any other agency authorised by the government. Besides, telecom companies must also keep mirror images of such RA activities for online monitoring and provide the same to security agencies on request, and the provision of RA cannot be used for monitoring of content. The guidelines also stipulate that under no circumstances, should RA be used for lawful interception of sensitive voice and data which are specified by the government. Additionally, it also states that RA can only be provided to telecom equipment suppliers and manufacturers and the parents and affiliates of the licensee company. For extending this facility to any other company, prior approval of the DoT is required."

No comments:

Search your favourite topic

3G (23) 4G (10) africa broadband (2) African Telecom (3) Aircell (4) airtel (20) Android (4) Apple (6) Asia Pacific Telecom market (8) bharti (7) broadband (39) Broadcasting (1) BSNL (10) CDMA (10) china mobile (37) China Telecom Market (13) cross media ownership (1) digital divide (3) DoCoMo (3) DoT (3) DTH (1) EDGE (2) Enterprise Telecom Business (5) ericsson (4) etisalat (1) European Telecom market (9) EVDO (1) FCC (2) fixed line market (1) fixed mobile convergence (2) forecasts for mobile market (5) GTL (1) HSPA (7) Huawei (2) idea (10) India 3G (47) India CDMA (50) India GSM (60) India Mobile (48) infrastructure sharing (6) International Long Distance (3) Internet service providers (3) Intra Circle Roaming (1) Ipad (1) IPTV (5) ITU (1) largetst telecom operator (6) latest telecom news (54) LG (2) LTE (10) M-commerce (4) Managed networks (2) Maxis (3) Middle Eastern telecom market (6) MIMO (1) mobile (21) mobile advertising (2) Mobile banking (5) mobile handsets (14) Motorola (3) MTNL (3) MVNO (2) Next Generation Networks (1) nokia (7) Nokia Siemens (1) number portability (6) OFDMA (1) QUALCOMM (1) Reliance Communications (16) RIM (2) Rural broadband (1) rural mobile infrastructure (9) Russia (1) Samsung (4) satellite communications (1) Smart Pad (1) Smartphone (3) Sony Ericsson (2) South East Asian Market (3) Spectrum (9) Spice (1) strategy for mobile operators (63) Symbian (1) Tablet (3) Tariff (1) Tata Communications (2) Tata Teleservices (5) TD-SCDMA (2) Telcordia (1) Tele-density (4) telecom equipment (22) Telecom growth projections (13) Telecom Market India (57) telecom market share (17) telecom operator strategy (40) telecom policy (32) Telecom regulation (7) telecom sector india (31) TRAI (13) Unique Identification Authority of India (1) US Telecom market (11) USO fund (4) VAS (2) verizon (6) Virgin (1) Vodafone (1) vodafone india (11) VoIP (5) VSNL (2) WAN (1) WCDMA (4) WiBro (1) WiFI (13) WiMAX (20) wireless broadband (43) wireless US (12) WMAN (1) Yota (1) Zain (1) ZTE (2)