India for Implementation of Default Security Features in ORAN Telecom Networks

India is in favour of implementing default security features in the open radio access network for telecom services at the earliest, a senior government official has said. The official was speaking at a virtual summit organised by Assocham along with Open RAN Policy Coalition, US Chamber of Commerce, Keidanren-Japan Business Federation and BSA – The Software Alliance. The QUAD member countries – the US, India, Japan and Australia – also participated in the event.

All the members during the discussion on Wednesday promised collaboration and support for building secured and trusted 5G networks, and the US representative supported India’s suggestion to implement security by design in open radio access network (O-RAN) components.

National Cyber Security Coordinator Rajesh Pant said the Indian government has supported the O-RAN proposal, which is democratising the telecom networks.

“We in the government of India are very clear that open and virtualised RAN are the future of mobile networks. We have also promoted Make in India and also issued a directive for trusted telecom products from trusted sources.

“Let us create a time-bound roadmap at the earliest. Please ensure security by design in the various components of O-RAN is implemented so that mistakes of the past are not repeated,” Pant said.

The O-RAN concept in the telecom segment is similar to open-source software technologies, where any company can use an open technology to develop its technical solution without claiming a patent for it.

The concept is expected to lower the cost of research and development for companies.

Pant said India is fast-tracking its 5G deployment efforts and is aware of open technologies.

Source: ET