The security testing facility in Bengaluru is part of the test rule of telecom equipment in India that is mandatory for sales and imports
The government of India has launched a facility in Bengaluru to test telecom equipment that has been made mandatory recently to ensure security in digital communications at the national level. Manoj Sinha, Telecom Minister, while addressing the ASSOCHAM event, announced the starting of the unit and stated that it would further boost the development of testing and certification ecosystem in India.
Mandatory telecom equipment test
The Department of Telecom recently announced the new rule that telecom products such as modems, audio conferencing, fax machines, satellite equipment and mobile phones must undergo a test to ensure security. It stated that it was mandatory to continue the sale of the equipment or their imports. Some telecom gears are slated to undergo the test starting January 1, 2019, and some selective products must take the test before April 2019. The rule allows DoT to take measures against manufacturers who fail to comply.
Telecom industry growing
Sinha said that the telecom industry has been growing since 2014 due to the continued efforts by the people engaged in the sector. He said that broadband subscribers had grown seven times from 61 million in 2014 to 447 million in 2018. The average data consumption had also grown 51 times from 62 MB per month in 2014 to 3.2 GB in June 2018. According to the minister, India has recorded the highest rate of mobile data consumption besides emerging as the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world.
The department had recently launched the National Digital Communications Policy to facilitate ease of doing business in the telecom sector. It also set a target to draw investments from across the world to further strengthen its infrastructure and gradually provide the consumers with the best quality telecom services in a secured manner. The Minister said that the economic impact of 5G in India was expected to be over $ 1 trillion and the consequent multiplier effect was expected to be exponential.
