I've been working closely on this topic for a while and considering that everybody knows that the telecoms licensing in India is 'very complex' I thought I'd have a go a sharing what I've learned.
Warning, this article is heavy with acronyms. I've done by best to highlight the important ones.
Who's in charge?
The main governing bodies and relevant agencies in India are:
Department of Telecommunications (referred to as the DoT) operates under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The DoT specifically focus on 'tele' part of 'communications' such as landline telephone and mobile cellular phone networks and wireless spectrums. The DoT are responsible for making the rules and granting licenses.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (referred to as the TRAI) act as an independent advisory to the DoT and make recommendations and guide the DoT towards fair and balanced outcomes. The TRAI regulate how the rules laid down by the DoT are followed and advises the DoT on changes.
A brief history of telecoms regulations and licence agreements
Now the fun stuff! I bet for a second you believed me, huh? Get your reading glasses on you nerd, let's got on a time travelling adventure!
A long time ago, in a country far far away (from me at least), "The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885" grants the government the power to regulate telecommunications, this is the act that instantiates the DoT as the authority.
"The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933" was responsible for the use of wireless communications, and spectrum allocation, etc.
Up until 1994 all of the telephony services and infrastructure was owned by the government, and no private licensing was available.
"The National Telecom Policy, 1994" brought around the change that saw the market opened to allow private companies to operate and provide telecommunications services.
And now that private companies were allowed to operate, they needed to be licensed by the DoT to ensure they adhered to the regulations, policies, and acts to provide a quality and reliable service for their customers.
- Basic Service Licence - for landline services
- Cellular Mobile Service Licence - for mobile services
"The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997" established the TRAI as an independent regulator for telecommunications and broadcasting (TV, Radio, etc).
"The New Telecom Policy, 1999" was created based on a report from a Group on Telecommunications that looked into why the "National Telecom Policy, 1994" didn't achieve its goals in the expected timeframe. This new policy set targets in place aimed to ensure companies provided more coverage, more affordable services, and higher speed internet.
It also set out new categories of service providers:
- Cellular Mobile Service Providers (CMSPs)
- Access Providers - made up of Fixed Service Providers (FSPs) and Cable Service Providers (CSPs)
- Radio Paging Service Providers
- Public Mobile Radio Trunking Service Providers (PMRTS)
- National Long Distance Operators (NLD)
- International Long Distance Operators (ILD)
- Other Service Providers (OSP)
- Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite Service Providers (GMPCS)
- V-SAT based Service Providers
And also did a bunch more things like restructure the DoT, set out a Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) that receives a Unified Access Levy from a percentage of the revenue earned by the service providers under the various licences covered.
Subsequently, the TRAI recommended an approach to, firstly - unify the landline and mobile licence types, and secondly - bring in other types of telecommunication services.
The first part of that was done through "The Unified Access Service Licence" (UASL) introduced in 2003 which replaced both the Basic Service Licence and the Cellular Mobile Service Licence and existing companies had to apply for this new UASL to continue operating.
The second part of the 'unification' process happened in 2013 when the "Unified Licence" (UL) joined up the UASL with the other licence types including Internet Service Providers (ISP), and the above NLD, IDL, PMRTS, GMPCS, V-SAT, and so on.
And that's what we have today, the Unified Licence (UL) is what is needed if you were to start a new company providing telecommunications services in India. If you provided any of the services that the Unified Licence grants, then you are a Network Service Operator (NSO).
But this wasn't enough, the TRAI wanted to promote competition, providing fairer prices and more choice to the market, which saw the birth of the "Virtual Network Operator" (VNO).
A Virtual Network Operator (VNO) is a company that partners with a Network Service Operator (NSO) to resell their services from along with their own additional services (for example, providing last mile interconnects at customers premises back to the NSO, or other telecoms services like voicemail / unified messaging, video conferencing over the VNO's own network within the Service Area their licence allows them to operate).
Woah, Recap Please!
Today in India there are two Licences that are applicable to PSTN telephony
- "Unified Licence" (UL) - if you are a Network Service Operator (NSO) in your own right.
- "Unified Licence for Virtual Network Operators" (UL-VNO) if you are reselling the services of a NSO along with additional services of your own.
"2 lines? that's the recap? I feel cheated. Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" I hear you ask. My answer is that you wouldn't have had any idea of the voyage of discovery I had to go through - and I wouldn't want you to miss out on that experience.
Access Service = Telephony?
Yes, under both of those (the UL, and the UL-VNO) it's likely that the Access Service is the category of telecommunications services that would apply, if you are providing 'access' to the PSTN in any fashion.
Access Services can be provided by wireline media (i.e., fixed line / landline / traditional telephony), or wireless media (mobile / cellular / cloud telephony / etc).
Internet Telephony
There will, no doubt, be some confusion when it comes to Internet Telephony and VoIP and Cloud Telephony - most people think they all mean the same thing, but lawyers are not people. (Sorry Ed, I'm obviously joking 👀).
Under the Internet Service category of the UL and UL-VNO, the term Internet Telephony is defined, and it's specifically stated as being PC to PC as well as other similar variations. Meaning that Internet Telephony is Voice over IP (i.e., Skype - RIP). And it goes on to clearly state that Internet Telephony services are NOT permitted to terminate on the PSTN through Internet Service Providers.
If you are licenced for Internet Services in India, you cannot bridge Internet Telephony with the PSTN.
Companies licensed for Access Services, are also allowed to provide Internet Telephony across their network, and they have the sole luxury of being allowed to terminate calls to and from the PSTN with Internet Telephony services.
I should clarify, if they are a NSO with their own UL Access Service licence, then they can do it themselves, if they are a VNO with their own UL-VNO Access Service licence then that termination of Internet Telephony with PSTN must be done by the NSO they partner with.
Where can NSOs and VNOs operate
That question comes down to 'Service Areas'. Each of the services defined in the UL and UL-VNO have their own definition of Service Areas.
National Long Distance (NLD), International Long Distance (ILD), VSAT CUG (Very Small Aperture Terminal Closed User Group), Global Mobile Personal Communication By Satellite (GMPCS), and International Private Leased Line (IPLC) are only available at the national level. It's all or nothing with those services.
Internet Services (ISP) and Machine to Machine (M2M) Services are available at either the national level (known as Category A), per each of the 22 Telecom Circles/Metro Areas (known as Category B), or per each of the many many Secondary Switching Area (SSAs) (known as Category C). SSAs are more or less synonymous with telephone exchanges and local switches and are defined by the switching and routing equipment that handles the calls for a specific geographic area they serve.
Access Services (and PMRTS if that matters to you) is available only per each of the Telecoms Circles/Metro Areas. This was up until 2017.
More Regulations and Licences
Just when you thought I had got all that out of my system several headings ago...
In 2017, the TRAI released a recommendation to introduce a new category of Access Services, known as "Access Service Category B". It is VERY important to note that the Category B here, does not relate to any other Category B you've heard anywhere else, it simply means the '2nd' available version of the Access Service.
The reason they introduced this was to break down the fairly large and expensive Service Areas of the Telecoms Circles/Metro Areas to help SMEs enter the market, to promote competition and let small businesses look after other small businesses by providing telephony services in their local areas.
However, that more granular level below Telecoms Circles/Metro Areas was done through 'Districts' instead of the notion of SSAs that was already used for Internet Services.
Districts are the recognised governmental boundaries in India. If a State or Union Territory was a county in the UK, or a state in USA, or a region in France.. then a District would be a borough in the UK, or a county in USA, or an department in France.
Another "gotchya" is that with the Access Service category the operator can provide wireline and wireless telephony services, although with this Access Service Category B, the VNO can only provide wireline services (and not wireless).
Conclusion
There you go! Exciting stuff, yes? And I bet that is way simpler than you originally thought 😅.
And can be summed up in two easy statements to impress your friends at dinner parties and social gatherings:
- The ability to sell fixed line telephony services requires the company to have an Access Service in the Unified Licence or Unified Licence for Virtual Network Operators in each of the Telecom Circle/Metro Area they operate.
- And Access Service Category B exists only in the Unified Licence for Virtual Network Operators, and is available per governmental administrative district.
If you are left wanting more, I expect I'll write another article at some point in the future relating to the requirements of equipment and operating telephony services as a VNO. Stay tuned if that's of any interest to you.
Wow, how have none of you bookmarked this site already? Jeesh.