China’s Huawei seeks access to Trusted Source Portal

News: Chinese telecom gear giant Huawei Technologies has sought permission for access to the government’s ‘Trusted Telecom Portal’ so that it can share details about the telecom products which telecom service providers have agreed to buy from it. 

What is the ‘Trusted Telecom Portal (TTP)’? 

Government recently launched a ‘trusted telecom’ portal as a part of the national security directive on the telecommunications sector. 

• Background: The development has come following the government’s efforts to ensure security of telecom networks, especially wrt fifth generation (5G) service. The initiative is widely believed to discourage the use of China-made gear in the country’s core networks. 
• Under: The new portal under the Cyber wing of the National Security Council Secretariat  
• Objective: Portal will mandate telecom service providers to use equipment through trusted or authentic sources only. 
• How will it work? 

• The TSPs will be able to access the Trusted Telecom Portal and indicate the telecom products they plan to buy, along with the vendor. 
• The details of these vendors, the products, the critical components and their sources are then populated in the portal by the telecom service providers. Vendors will also be given access to the portal. 
• The government will assess the vendors and the sources of the components to determine trusted sources and trusted products and this decision will be intimated to the vendor and the telecom provider. 

What is the National Security Directive? 

The directive makes it mandatory for providers to get a ‘trusted product’ and ‘trusted source’ stamp on all new telecom equipment they want to buy from OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers).  

• It is aimed primarily to allow for closer scrutiny of Chinese telecom products and ensure that companies like Huawei and ZTE are discouraged from selling any new equipment, especially in 5G. 
• Definition of a trusted product: The definition of ‘trusted product’ is products and their critical components which need to be procured from a trusted source. The telecom service providers will be able to access the Trusted Telecom Portal and indicate the telecom products they plan to buy, along with the vendor. 

So, why has Huawei sought permission to access TTP? 

As per Huawei and other Chinese telecom companies, the new National Security Directive on the telecom sector does not in any way prohibit them from taking part in the process of selling telecom equipment of any kind to private telcos. Hence, it has sought permission to access the portal. 

What are the new rules mandated by the govt regarding buying of telecom equipment? 

As part of the new process,  

• Details sought: Telcos which want to buy new equipment will have to apply for approval.  

• Equipment details: They will have to provide details of the products they want to procure. They’ll also have to provide details about the origin of the products as well as the various components going into it. Details of active components, their maker and the location of their global headquarters have to be shared and the country in which the intellectual property rights are controlled. In the case of software, the name of the software owner, its global headquarters, the name and country of the subcontractors and the country from where software will be upgraded all have to be shared. 
• Organizational details: OEMs have to divulge a lot of detail not just about the equipment but about the organization as well, such as the names of the top 10 shareholders up to three levels, their country of origin and whether there has been any change in ownership in the last three years.  

• Scrutiny by NSCT: Based on this data, the National Security Committee on Telecom, headed by the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, will decide whether the equipment is trusted and from a trusted source.  
• Mandatory replacement of existing equipment doesn’t come under these new rules. 

This new order is similar to the restrictions that countries like the US and UK have also imposed on the import of Chinese gear out of fear that it might pose a security risk to their telecom infrastructure. 

Problems with the new process 

New rules are not clear as to what percentage of a piece of equipment’s components has to come from non-Chinese sources for it to be considered trusted.  

. Source: Business-standard 

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