Centre asks telecom operators to introduce Location Based Service (LBS)

New Delhi: The telecom department has issued notices to Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and BSNL to submit compliance reports on the accuracies of their location-based services.

In May 2011, telecom department had made it mandatory for operators to introduce Location Based Service (LBS) by which security agencies will be able to detect or track the exact location of people they are monitoring.

In the past, there has been opposition to the telecom department’s directive on location based services by some telecos. They had claimed that the industry will have to shell out around $5 billion to set up such infrastructure.

They had claimed that this could push up mobile tariffs as the margins of telecom companies were already under pressure.

In the notice, the telecom department said that operators were asked to submit the compliance report with respect to accuracies achieved so far by them, which can be used as input for deciding the methodology of measurement and for preparing roadmap for implementation of the accuracies.

“Compliance reports from telecom service providers, except Tata Teleservices, Vodafone India, MTNL, SSTL, Aircel, Telewings Communications and Videocon Telecommuni-cations, is still awaited," said the department.

To keep tabs on terrorist attack, the government is enhancing its ability to monitor communication through various technologies.

The international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) is a unique 15-digit code that comes with every GSM mobile and helps uniquely identify the handset. Earlier telecom department had amended the licence making it mandatory for the ­telecom companies to provide call interception facilities for at least 480 calls at any given time to security agencies.