Overview
- Documents and sources indicate the government is assessing a COAI proposal to require device-level A-GPS that cannot be turned off.
- A scheduled Home Ministry meeting with smartphone executives was postponed, and officials have made no final policy decision.
- Apple, Google and Samsung have told New Delhi they oppose the mandate, while their lobby group ICEA called it regulatory overreach with no global precedent.
- The proposal also urges disabling pop-up notices that reveal when carriers access a user’s location, a change critics say would erode transparency.
- Experts say always-on A-GPS could let authorities pinpoint locations to roughly one meter, a push that follows this week’s rollback of the Sanchar Saathi preload order.