Against the backdrop of the ongoing 2G licensing dispute in the country, India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) sent notices to Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices calling for the withdrawal of certain 3G services, stating that they “violate security norms,” the Economic Times reports. The issue is with the provision of services that are problematic to monitor in real-time, which is believed to include video telephony, VoIP and instant messaging. According to the paper, Tata said that a meeting has been called for the security services, system vendors, operators and regulators to discuss the topic, while Reliance, which has not launched a video telephony service, said it has proved that its infrastructure is in-line with global standards. In August 2010 it was reported that the authorities had told operators that systems should be capable of legal intercept before 3G services could be launched, potentially delaying the rollout of 3G services in the country following the spectrum licensing process earlier in 2010. Reliance and Tata are leading India’s private operators when it comes to the introduction of 3G services in the country, and it was suggested that Bharti Airtel, which is in the process of rolling out services, has also been contacted. State-owned BSNL and MTNL have been offering 3G services for some time, and it is not clear if these bodies have also been contacted about the security issues.

Separately, the Economic Times reports that the government has delayed approval for Qualcomm’s wireless broadband venture in India, with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, which is responsible for granting clearance, having delayed its decision until a meeting at the end of the year. Qualcomm says that it is making “good progress on LTE TDD ecosystem readiness and deployment planning for 2011,” in the meantime. It has previously been revealed that Qualcomm is looking to dispose of the unit next year, with Bharti Airtel and Aircel both seen as potential buyers. The current delay “could give Qualcomm’s spectrum buyers time to evaluate the business value of the airwaves, and affect the final valuation of the purchase,” the paper suggests. Qualcomm’s motivation for creating the business was to promote use of its LTE-family technology over WiMAX.