Direct in Dialing (DID) facility allows companies or residents to purchase a block of telephone numbers from telecom operators, and deploy it in a closed manner within a company/residential plot, using a private branch exchange system (PBX). An example of DID is when, in a hotel, users in different rooms can make and receive calls within the premises for free. In its latest consultation paper(pdf), the telecom regulator TRAI is asking whether these franchisees operating DID services could be migrated to a new Unified Licensing (UL) based Virtual network Operator (VNO) licensing regime, in order to allow them to provide voice and Internet services. A VNO is a licensed telecom entity which leases access infrastructure from a telecom operator or multiple telecom operators, to offer access services under its own brand; An example of a franchise operation is something like Virgin Mobile in India, which was operating on the infrastructure of with Tata Teleservices. Nikhil adds: Effectively, the TRAI is asking whether each hotel or place which offers such facilities should buy a government license to offer Internet access. Note that many of such places offer Internet access without having to buy a license, so this would lead to a regulatory overhead. Issues related migration of DIDs to VNOs TRAI pointed out that as of now DID franchisees are allowed to offer voice services only within a wireline network and in order to allow them to offer cellular-based services, it earlier issued guidelines allowing migration to the cheaper Category B VNO license. However, some issues…
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