The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a pre-consultation paper on ‘Delinking of licenses for networks from the delivery of services by way of virtual network operators (VNO)’ to seek inputs from various stakeholders.

The VNOs offer services by tying up with existing operators without buying spectrum. According to the draft National Telecom Policy 2011, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) classified licenses as Network Service Operator (NSO) license and Service Delivery Operator (SDO) license. VNOs are the SDO licensees, which do not own networks but rely on the network and support of the infrastructure providers and telecom operators for providing telecom services to customers.

Earlier, the DoT had asked TRAI for recommendations on delinking licenses for networks from the delivery of services by way of VNOs. It had also requested TRAI for recommendations on the issue of definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) under the unified license regime.