The government today allowed video calls on 3G mobile networks, but with a rider that service providers would provide interception capabilities by July 31.
In an official statement, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said: “It has now been decided that carriage of video calls on mobile networks would be permitted, subject to an undertaking by the service providers concerned that they shall demonstrate the required capability by July 31.”
If the demonstration was not up to the satisfaction of the government, the service providers stood committed, according to the undertaking, to unconditionally and unequivocally withdraw the video call service from their network immediately, the statement added. DoT had earlier asked two private players — Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices — which have launched 3G mobile services, not to go ahead with the commercial launch till a lawful interception mechanism was in place.
Apart from RCom and Tata, state-run telecom majors BSNL and MTNL have launched 3G mobile services.
The government wanted interception capabilities by which the security agencies could monitor video calls on a real-time basis.