Sweden-based telecom vendor, Ericsson refused to share source code with the Indian government reasoning that it is a proprietary information of any telecom vendor and thus the most valuable asset, report news agency PTI.

In a communication to DoT, Ericsson said, "Source code is vendor's proprietary information and most valuable asset of the company.We believe that Escrowing of source code requirement be exempted/deleted from the agreement."

PTI reports that Ericsson contended that once the supplied products are certified by an agency of repute, as suggested in the proposed draft, escrowing of source code is not needed.

Ericsson’s response follows the government last week issuing guidelines and amendments to telecom licences making it mandatory for vendors to share their source code. The government had said last week that the source code would be kept in an escrow account and would be invoked only in case of an emergency.

According to Ericsson the government has put the entire responsibility for security on foreign vendors. "This should be a shared responsibility and obligation (among the vendors and service providers)," said Ericsson.

"We truly believe that this agreement in its current form will have serious implication on the quality of supplies, telecom growth, international trade and may not address the country's concern relating to National security," added Ericsson.