Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has granted a national long distance (NLD) licence to Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL). The licence will enable the telecom operator to offer domestic long-distance calls to its customers on its own network. SSTL had undertaken an authorisation to get an NLD licence when it was awarded the Unified Access Services Licence (UASL) in October 2013.

The NLD licence is valid for 20 years effective from September 3, 2014. The operator has reportedly paid Rs 25 million for the licence. Earlier, SSTL was providing these services using Tata Teleservices’ NLD network. The operator will now be able to offer lower STD charges as the licence would help it minimise the interconnect user charges.

SSTL has operations across nine circles out of the 22 circles with a subscriber base of more than 10 million.