New year beckons a new service authorisation under the Unified License

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Service area: The service area specified in case of the New Authorisation is national level. In other words, an entity will be able to provide services across the country after obtaining it.

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Financial requirements: Specific financial requirements such as minimum equity, minimum net worth, entry fee, bank guarantee amounts and application processing fees have been prescribed for the New Authorisation.

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License fees: Licensees will be required to pay license fees in respect of the services provided under the New Authorisation on the basis of the adjusted gross revenue (which will be in turn based on the applicable gross revenue).

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Standards: The technology for providing the services shall be based on the latest standards / service requirements issued by the Telecommunications Engineering Centre (TEC) as amended or issued from time to time. In this regard, certain standards have been stipulated in the New Authorisation.

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Applicable system: The licensee shall install applicable system / equipment, complying to the service requirements, within India. This means that foreign based infrastructure would not be capable of being used.

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Network interconnection and toll bypass: Traffic is required to be routed through the network of the national long distance (NLD) / international long distance (ILD) provider, as the case may be. The services should not be used in any manner for any illegal bypass of STD / ISD traffic of any licensed TSP.

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Dial-out: In case of audio-conferencing services, dial-out facility using resources of more than one Access Service provider is permitted with the condition that STD / ISD traffic should not be bypassed. For Audiotex services, dial-out will not be permitted unless dial out is made to callers who have made incoming calls to the Audiotex server.

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Connectivity: In case of audio-conferencing services, the audio-conferencing unit shall be connected to the licensed TSP’s network like public switched telephone network (PSTN) / public land and mobile network (PLMN) / integrated services digital network (ISDN) or internet protocol (IP) network by using a combination of appropriate interface as per TEC standards.

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Delivery / roll-out: The licensee shall be required to commission the applicable systems within 1 (one) year from the effective date of the license. In this case, commissioning of services shall mean providing commercial services to customers with due intimation to DoT.

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Security conditions: The New Authorisation also provides a host of security conditions. We have set out some of the critical ones below:

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The licensee shall maintain log details including call detail records (CDRs) / (IP detail records) IPDRs of all subscribers for the services provided. These details are required to be maintained for the prescribed period.

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The licensee shall disclose complete details of terms and conditions and obligations under all contracts entered not with other licensed TSPs within 15 (fifteen) days of entering into such contracts. The licensee will also be required to provide authenticated copies of all such contracts within such period.

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The licensee shall keep a record containing information of the service with name and address, and access number of the subscribers.

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The licensee shall make available all detailed information (as prescribed) about the conference calls and list of subscribers for Audiotex services, to DoT or designated security agencies. Such information is also required to be maintained for the prescribed period.

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The licensee shall provide a watchdog terminal with access limited to unfiltered CDR / IPDR to the DoT and designated security agencies.