The licence and finance wing of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has suggested amending the unified access service (UAS) licence to include a second performance bank guarantee of Rs 100 million.

Under the unified licence (UL) regime, operators are required to maintain two performance bank guarantees and a financial bank guarantee. However, while allowing migration from UAS regime to UL regime, DoT has made amendments which allow a UAS licence holder to continue offering voice services for the next 10 years. In view of this amendment, licence and finance wing of the DoT has proposed to bring in second performance bank guarantee for service providers migrating to the UL regime.

According to the licence and finance wing’s initial proposal, the second performance bank guarantee will come in to play when a telecom service provider violates licence norms. The second bank guarantee is being proposed to ensure higher compliance of DoT’s instructions. The second bank guarantee will be valid for the complete tenure of the licence held by an operator.

The government will hold the right to cash out performance bank guarantee by imposing liquidated damages on a carrier in case it fails to meet the roll-out obligations.