The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued its recommendations on “Introducing Virtual Network Operators in telecom sector”. This comes after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sought TRAI’s recommendations on the same, through its reference dated July 7, 2014.

TRAI has recommended that the Virtual Network Operators (VNO) should be introduced through a proper licensing framework in the Indian telecom sector and be allowed to offer voice, data and video services. For introduction of VNO in the sector, there should be a separate category of licence, namely UL (VNO).  Duration of VNO licenses should be 10 years and extendable by 10 years at a time. Further, like Unified License authorisation, only pan-India or service-area wise authorisations should be granted under a UL (VNO) licence. Depending on technological developments and experience gathered, the duration of licence can be reviewed after a gap of 3-4 years.

A VNO will be primarily an operator providing various services to an end consumer by using the underlying network of a network service operator (NSO). TRAI has further recommended that VNOs should be allowed to provide services of more than one operator and create their own service delivery platforms in respect of customer service, billing and value-additions.