A telecom department panel has suggested that all gateways and application servers used to deliver machine-to-machine (M2M) services in future be located in India on national security grounds, according to an internal note.
M2M applications are an emerging area in the telecoms space that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with each other.
M2M, typically, uses devices such as sensors to transfer information over a telecom network. Services such as security and surveillance, remote monitoring of ATM machines, home automation, traffic management, retail, logistics and grid energy could eventually benefit through M2M solutions, which are also expected to support the Centre's Rs 7,000-crore 'Smart City' project.
The draft M2M policy guidelines were recently discussed at a meeting chaired by a top official in the Telecom Commission, which is the apex decision making wing in the communications ministry.
The DoT panel has also recommended that M2M service providers (MSPs) will be "governed jointly by DoT regulations and norms applicable to specific industry-vertical" where the M2M solution is deployed.
All MSPs using infrastructure of licensed telecom operators will have to be registered and the DoT will shortly issue separate registration guidelines, the note, a copy of which was seen by ET, shows. The registration is critical to pave the way for national security agencies to legally monitor MSP operations.
The DoT panel will also outline a distinct spectrum policy purely for M2M services, the note shows.
The government is keen to unveil its M2M policy roadmap since industry experts reckon that India has huge potential for such services, especially with the proliferation of 3G and 4G services, which are expected to trigger an exponential growth for M2M transactions in the next three years.
Industry experts, however, believe data privacy remains a tricky issue in the M2M scenario since information would be shared and used with third-party vendors. Accordingly, they hope that DoT will address the issue while formulating the M2M roadmap.
