Telcos rapped on roaming user info

The department of telecom has pulled up service operators for not providing voice intercepts of those subscribers who are outside their home circle and therefore on the "roaming" facility, to security agencies.

The move is significant as it comes after growing apprehensions that terrorists and criminals have been misusing mobile phones for committing crimes.

While GSM operators have said it is not possible for them to comply with these norms, CDMA players say they have no problem in providing such information.

In a note to all operators, the department (DoT) has written that the issue has been brought to the notice of the licensor. It has asked service providers to explain the system's features and also why providing such information is technically not possible.

The apex GSM body "" Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) Secretary-General TV Ramachandran pointed out, "Our licence is for a service area, how can we tell where a subscriber has gone when he leaves the home network. It is not possible at all. All that we can do is to inform the security agencies that a subscriber has left the home network".

CDMA operators, however ,say that they have no problem in complying. A Tata spokesperson said, "It is technically possible on our network and we have accordingly communicated to the government".

When contacted, a Reliance Infocomm spokesperson declined to comment. However, CDMA operators emphasised that call-related information in their system is stored in a central server, from where it can be given to the security agencies.

A senior executive with a leading GSM mobile operator said that CDMA operators do not provide true roaming as their subscribers have to use the same network across the country.