The Department of Telecom (DoT) has once again asked all telecom operators to install Location Based Servers (LBS) at the earliest to aid location based tracking of calls up to 50 meters in real time, The Hindu reports. After all the telecom companies failed to meet the deadline for installing LBS last year owing to the high cost of installation, the DoT has pushed again, saying that action will be taken against the operators LBS servers are not installed at the earliest. From what we know, the issue of installing Location Based Servers by telecom operators has been on the radar since 26th October 2009; Medianama has been tracking this issue since April 2010. In response to a RTI filed with the DoT, Medianama had received copies of the notices issued by the DoT to the telecom operators along with Bharati Airtel’s response to the notice expressing concern over the high cost of installation (Rs. 4500 crores) and consumer privacy issues. The mandate requiring the 50 meters accuracy was further revised by the government. Milind Deora, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology made an announcement last year in the Lokh Sabha regarding the revised location accuracy percentage and distance for which the telecoms have to maintain location details of its mobile customers. High Cost to the telecom operators Since the installation could cost close to $5 billion to the Indian telecom operators, COAI had last year suggested that the Indian government should bear the…
