The Telecom Department has convened a high-level meeting for Thursday to discuss the preparedness of the mobile service providers to track caller location on real-time basis by the deadline of May 31.
In view of security concerns, Home Ministry through Telecom Department had asked mobile service providers to acquire by May 31 the capabilities to track location of a caller which could be shared with security agencies on real time basis, official sources said.
The DoT in its meeting on Thursday which will be attended by all operators, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUTSPI) is likely to convey to operators they should “strictly adhere” to the May 31 deadline for implementation of Location Based Services and seek from them the latest status report on including them in call detail records submitted to law enforcement agencies, they said.
The sources said the deadline for Jammu and Kashmir for having such a facility has been advanced to March 31 as per the direction of Union Home Secretary R K Singh.
The Home Ministry had demanded that all service providers must be able to provide by May 31 the location details of their consumers with certain degree of accuracy and these should be part of call detail records in the form of longitude and latitude, and coordinates of cells sites, which can be made available to security agencies, they said.
The purpose is to track down the location from where the call had originated with an accuracy of 30—90 per cent in an area of 50—300 m depending on the population and area.
It has asked them to first acquire capabilities for the specified numbers given to them and within three years the location details “shall be part of call record for all mobile calls”, they said.
