Aerovoyce, a Chennai-based company which had received approval for MVNO operations from DoT, launched its broadband and international calling services on Friday. An MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), is an entity which buys telecom services (calling, data, SMS etc) in bulk from multiple telecom operators, and provides them to its customers, as a part of a differentiated offering. Think of it as an aggregator of telecom services. Aerovoyce did not disclose the names of its telecom/ISP partners. Note that as per India's MVNO guidelines, they're only allowed to partner with one telecom operator per access service time: so, a different partner for data, National Long Distance Voice, International Long Distance voice, etc. However, the Department of Telecom is looking at removing this constraint. As of October last year, DoT received applications from 60 companies that were looking to launch MVNO services. A list here. Aerovoyce's plans Aerovoyce said that it will be focusing on “townships and rural areas” with a population of above 10,000 - 50,000. In the first phase, the company is launching in cities like Salem, Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Cuddalore and Kanyakumari in the Tamil Nadu circle. It will also provide commercial VSAT infrastructure for providing Internet in closed buildings and other Value Added Services like movies, sports updates, music, etc. Note that Aerovoyce is yet to launch its national voice and data services. A spokesperson from the company told MediaNama that this is planned in the second phase of its launch although a timeline was not provided. Currently, the company is offering…
