A Parliamentary panel has asked the Department of Telecommunications to look into risk imported telecom equipment may pose to national security.

The Committee on Estimates, headed by Francisco Sardinha recommended that DoT should look into the issues of national security emerging out of import of SIM cards, fake and duplicate numbers.

DoT "should take a cue from the recent investigation carried out by the US House of Representatives'... on Intelligence which has gauged level of threat to US and asked a detailed accounting of foreign made hardware and software on the service provider's network," it said in a report tabled in Parliament last week.

The panel also cited that the US committee also asked for information related to security incidence such as discovery of unauthorised electronic hardware or suspicious equipment capable of duplicating for redirecting data.

In November 2011, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) of US has launched an investigation into the threat posed by Chinese-owned telecommunications companies working in the United States, and the government's response to that threat.

The investigation was to review the extent to which these companies provide the Chinese government an opportunity for greater foreign espionage, threaten US' critical infrastructure, and further the opportunity for Chinese economic espionage.

The committee was formed to also review whether the United States government, including the collection resources of the intelligence community, are appropriately focused on discovering the full scope of the Chinese threat and developing mitigation measures to ensure the security of United Nation's telecommunications networks.