Guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSP) further liberalized: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, on Wednesday announced that the Department of Telecommunication has further liberalized the guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSPs). These entities are business process outsourcing (BPO) organisations giving Voice-based services, in India and abroad. The Guidelines issued on Wednesday further liberalized the special dispensation given to Other Service Providers (OSPs) in addition to the major measures already announced and implemented in November 2020. Also Read | SAD announces alliance with BSP ahead of 2022 polls; BSP to contest on 20 seats

The main features of the liberalised guidelines announced by Ravi Shankar Prasad are:

• The distinction between Domestic and International OSPs has been removed. A BPO centre with common Telecom resources will now be able to serve customers located worldwide including in India.

• EPABX (Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange) of the OSP can be located anywhere in the world. OSPs apart from utilising EPABX services of the Telecom Service Providers can also locate their EPABX at third Party Data Centres in India.
• With the removal of the distinction between Domestic and International OSP centres, the interconnectivity between all types of OSP centres is now permitted.
• Remote Agents of OSP can now connect directly with the Centralised EPABX/ EPABX of the OSP/ EPABX of the customer using any technology including Broadband over wireline/ wireless.

• No restriction for data interconnectivity between any OSP centres of the same company or group company or any unrelated company.
• It may be recalled that DoT has already exempted Data-Based Services from the OSP regulations. In addition, the regulations exempted OSPs from the requirement of any registration. Also, no Bank Guarantees were to be furnished. Work from Home and Work from Anywhere was also permitted.
• Penalties for violations were removed altogether reaffirming the trusted Government has in the business.
• Further liberalization of Guidelines today will provide a big fillip for the growth of the OSP industry in India. This will create immense opportunities, income and employment in India.

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