The Department of Telecom, DoT has recently amended the telecom licenses. Through these amendments, the service providers will now roll out machine-to-machine communication. This communication is the major part of 5G technology.
About the recent amendments
- The entry fee for the telecom operators willing to provide the machine to machine services is 30 lakh rupees. Their financial bank guarantee is fixed at two lakh rupees and performance bank guarantee at forty lakh rupees.
- For the circle level category, the entry fees is two lakh rupees, financial bank guarantee is Rs 20,000 and performance bank guarantee is forty lakh rupees.
- For the circle level category, the entry fees is Rs 20,000. The Financial bank guarantee is Rs 2,000 and the performance bank guarantee is Rs 10,000.
- Interactive Voice Response Service, IVRS has been added as an extra clause for telecom license.
Why the amendment?
To allow 5 – G enabled services. Machine to machine communication is the key driver of 5G. The machine to machine guidelines were issued in 2018. However, it did not include the provisioning of the licensing process. Now the amendment has provisioned the licenses by incorporating the machine to machine communication at national level permit including district and circle level.
About the Machine to Machine communication Guidelines
- Machine to machine communication means communication between two or more electronic devices. It does not need human interaction.
- The license should verify every customer before enrolling him as a subscriber.
- Outgoing or incoming calls are allowed only to predefined numbers. Data communication is allowed only to two IP addresses.
- Tele – verification is mandatory before SIM activation.
- E – SIM, embedded SIM shall be used.
What is performance bank guarantee?
Here the compensation is paid by the bank of a non – financial entity if a delay occurs in delivering the performance. It is usually provided by the seller to the buyer. The guarantee kicks in if the seller fails to deliver the goods and services to the buyer.
What is financial bank guarantee?
Here the money is repaid if an entity or a party did not complete a project. When there is a delay in execution of the project, the bank will make the payment.