NEW DELHI, Mar 10:
To tackle terrorist activities, the Defence Ministry has asked the Department of Telecom to exclude Jammu and Kashmir from the proposed plan for full mobile number portability, which allows a customer to retain number in any part of the nation after changing operators.
Under National Telecom Policy, the Government has envisaged the concept of ‘One Nation One Number’ by allowing full MNP. At present, customers are allowed to change their mobile service provider without changing their number only within a State or service area.
Under full MNP, customers will be allowed to switch service providers throughout the country without changing their mobile numbers. Full MNP is yet to be approved by the Government.
The Defence Ministry, as per official sources, has told the DoT that “The ‘One Nation One Number’ provision of the Telecom Policy 2012 should not be implemented in J&K.”
The Ministry has also asked the DoT to work with the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) to intercept VoIP (making voice call using Internet) through 2G connections and selectively ban mobile Internet at locations identified as terrorist ‘hotspots’.
These “communication services” need to be “denied” in the affected areas for the effective conduct of counter insurgency and terrorist operations, official sources added.
The Ministry has also raised concern over mobile signals from towers located in Pakistan penetrating into India up to a distance of about 20 kilometres from the Line of Control.
“The matter (mobile signals from Pakistan) may be taken up with Ministry of External Affairs so that the same is resolved in accordance with policy guidelines by International Telecom Union,” official sources said.
ITU is a body under United Nations which deals in global telecommunication matters. (PTI)
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