The government has formed an inter-ministerial panel to be headed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to finalise eligibility rules for companies interested in establishing telecom gear testing labs in India.

The panel has been constituted to fasttrack local screening of imported telecom equipment used in the country’s telecom networks. Originally, the gear testing of imported equipment in locally accredited test labs was scheduled to start from July 1, 2014. However, the government has deferred the move by few more months in the absence of a suitable facility, which is capable of testing about $7 billion of imported telecom equipment in India every year.

The panel will be responsible for deciding the testing procedures to be followed for different categories of network equipment, including base stations, mobile switching centres, transmission systems, routers and microwave devices. It will also frame the accreditation road map for telecom testing labs in India.

In addition, the panel will also vet the test suite document of each network element drawn up by the Telecom Testing and Security Certification (TTSC) centre, which will frame local standards for screening telecom products. Further, the panel will also be responsible for finalising the evaluation and eligibility criteria of expressions of interest and request for proposals that DoT is expected to invite shortly from potential domestic and global developers of telecom testing labs.

The panel constituted by the government will include senior officials from various ministries and departments such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, Intelligence Bureau, the Department of Electronics and IT, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Defence Research and Development Organisation and National Technical Research Organisation.