The Cellular Association of India (COAI) has asked Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) to make sure that the WiFi services are only offered by licensed operators otherwise it would break the law.
COAI has sent a letter to chairman of Trai, RS Sharma stating that the reselling of wiFi services cannot be done without obtaining a virtual network operator (VNO) licence.
COAI has informed in the letter that the internet services without a VNO licence would be a violation of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885.
COAI wrote, “reselling of internet services without a VNO licence would be a violation of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885. Such a regime will undermine the VNO licence which was specially created for reselling of telecom services only, and many companies have obtained the VNO licence for various service authorization.”
COAI director general Rajan S Mathews also wrote,“We would like to draw your attention to a clarification issued by DoT on November 28, 2016, that a creation of active IP requires a licence under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and mobile towers firms would either require Unified Licence or VNO licence.”
The COAI has disapproved any move to permit unlicensed players to become public data office aggregators (PDOAs), which would provide connectivity to WiFi hotspots or PDOs and generate revenue, and share the revenue with the government.
