India withdraws ban on 3G video calls

Indian government has decided to life the ban on 3G video calls on the new networks set up by private operators, the Ministry of Communication and IT said. It said the matter regarding Carriage of Video Calls in the network of mobile service providers was under consideration of the Government. It said that the ban was imposed after It was noted that the intercepted video calls were not being delivered to the security agencies in the desired manner.

“After examination of various options, it has now been decided to permit carriage of calls on Mobile Networks subject to an undertaking being provided by the concerned service providers that they shall demonstrate the required capability by July 31, 2011. They have to develop required technical capabilities and offer the same for testing sufficiently in advance so that the testing process is completed and communication regarding satisfactory testing can be issued by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to the service providers by July 31, 2011.

“If the demonstration is not up to the satisfaction of the Government, the service providers stand committed as per the undertaking unconditionally and unequivocally withdraw the Video Call Service from their network immediately. A communication conveying the above has been issued by DoT on January 13, 2011 to the service providers concerned,” the statement added.