The government is likely to defer the deadline for local screening and testing of telecom products used in mobile networks.

This is owing to a delay in establishing a Telecom Security Directorate, the nodal agency responsible for monitoring testing of products. Further, the government has been unable to establish testing labs for this purpose.

Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications had advocated the establishment of a Telecom Security Directorate to coordinate all telecom security-related matters and mandated operators to get imported network elements locally tested beginning July 2014 at an accredited lab before being deployed in telecom networks in India.