Union minister for Communications and Development of North-eastern Region has announced a set of strategic reforms by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to strengthen India’s telecom security ecosystem while significantly reducing compliance burden on industry.
DoT, through its National Centre for Communication Security (NCCS) has extended Pro Tem Certification Scheme beyond January 1, 2026 on an ongoing basis for a period of two years.
The scheme, was introduced in October, 2024 to help industry avoid disruption in business processes for IP Router and Wi-Fi customer premises equipment (CPE) products, which otherwise were mandatory to be security certified starting October 1, 2024. The scheme was valid till and due for review from December 31, 2025. Under the Pro Tem certification, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) submit a declaration of conformance, stating that their equipment complies with most of the security requirements for applicable IP Router and Wi-Fi CPE products as per the Indian Telecommunication Security Assurance Requirements (ITSAR). Simultaneously, the equipment is offered to telecom security testing lab (TSTL) for testing. OEMs also submit an undertaking to address any shortfalls identified during the testing within the validity of the certificate. The scope of the Pro Tem certification has been further extended to cover 5G core session management function (SMF), optical line terminal, optical networking terminal (ONT), and new product launches.
Extending the availability of Pro Tem Security Certification Scheme for two more years will ease the pressure on the industry regarding tough timelines for new product introduction and existing products deployment.
Meanwhile, NCCS has notified a substantial reduction exceeding 50 per cent in the designation application fees for TSTLs, as part of multi-pronged initiatives to lessen the compliance cost of security testing and to promote ease of doing business in telecom security testing eco-system. Key highlights of the revised TSTL designation applications fee structure:
- Equal or more than 50 per cent reduction in TSTL designation application fees across categories.
- Simplified, application-based fee structure, replacing complex slabs.
- Special concessions, aligned with TEC policy, including:
- 50 per cent fee reduction for Indian startups, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and women-owned enterprises.
- Complete fee waiver for central and state government testing agencies, government institutions, IITs, and autonomous bodies.
- First-time TSTL designation application fees are now capped at significantly lower levels.
- Additional scope expansion during validity is more affordable and predictable.
- No fee for specific security requirement scope additions where corporate social responsibility approval exists.
- Lower renewal fees, encouraging continuity and long-term participation.
These measures are expected to expand the TSTL ecosystem, improve telecom security testing capacity, and reduce time-to-market for secure telecom products in India.
Major policy enablers and strategic impact of these reforms will strengthen national telecom security testing ecosystem, encourage private, academic, and government sector participation, enable development of indigenous telecom security testing infrastructure and nurturing government vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Further, in July, 2025, the DoT announced a sharp reduction of up to 95 per cent in the security test evaluation fees for telecom and information and communication technology (ICT) products. The DoT has also simplified the security testing and compliance process for highly specialised equipment (HSE) and end-of-sale / end-of-life telecom products.
Furthermore, DoT through its NCCS has simplified the ITSAR Security Certification process by identifying a group of customised variants of ONTs and testing them under a single certification procedure.
ITSAR for ONT, a device used at customer premises to access internet, was notified on November 24, 2023. Security certification for the device has been made effective on voluntary basis with effect from August 1, 2024 and on mandatory basis with effect from January 1, 2026. Owing to compilation method provided by chipset vendors, these variants are built with different hash values even though the software version remains the same. This makes them not relatable and warranted a separate certification for each variant, which increased the security certification costs hugely resulting in large number representations from the industry for relief. NCCS, with inputs from Industry representatives and consultation, has worked out a mechanism to reduce the ITSAR compliance burden and to effectively reduce the number of testing cases by 10 times, thereby providing substantial financial relief in security testing.