Sharing Information for Knowledge and in Public Interest:

It is being circulated in social media, electronic and print media that Department of Telecommunications is collecting bulk Call Detail Records (CDRs) of telecom subscribers. Privacy related concerns are being raised. It is also being shared that CDRs contain information related to Name of the subscriber, Location of the subscriber, Details of Called Party etc.

THESE THINGS ARE BEING SHARED WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPTS AND TOTALLY BASELESS.

I, being, directly involved in the project aimed for improving Quality of Service and resolving Call Drops issues through the use of Big Data Analytics, am sharing the true picture of what is being done by Department of Telecommunications in the interest of telecom subscribers.

We are in advanced stage of building an in-house platform backed by big data analytics for finding out the areas where subscribers are facing call drops, echo, cross connections, incomplete or poor calling experience. Hon'ble Minister of Communications Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad Sir and Telecom Secretary have accorded their approvals after considering the benefits of the project.

The in-house software tool that would analyse big data and accurately ascertain call drops in any area .

For this purpose, total data of calls made during any particular time period from the identified cell phone tower locations from where the complaints are received is collected to enable analysis.

The data does NOT contain names of either the maker or receiver of calls and only those calls made by a subscriber who enters a given coverage area of the identified cell tower or calls drop/ details of calls received or made by such subscriber are collected.

So, the data collected is totally anonymous. CDRs are all metadata and no content. It is being analyzed to improve the quality of telecom services available at the subscriber level.

Legally speaking, DoT is empowered under the Rule 419 of the Indian Telegraph Rules 1951 to access anonymous data for improving network quality

DoT has already issued a statement that this data is anonymous and does not contain names of either the maker or receiver of calls. There is no infringement of privacy of any person. No personal details are collected. There is no tracking of any phone number.

All the telecom service providers have also understood the DoT’s point of view and had cooperated with the department, given that the date shared did not violate privacy of subscribers.

We, all, have been facing the issue of call drops and we are implementing an innovative technique to ensure we find the gaps and ensure best telecom services are made available to our citizens.