DoT amends telecom licences to enable machine-to-machine communications

The Department of Telecom has amended telecom licenses to enable service providers to roll out machine-to-machine communication -- a service which is considered as a key driver of 5G adoption -- in the country.

While the DoT had issued machine-to-machine (M2M) guidelines in May 2018, the clause related to their provisioning was not part of the telecom licenses.

The DoT in the license amendment has incorporated M2M with a pan-India permit, limited to circle level and district level, according to a circular.

Telecom operators interested in providing M2M services across India will have an entry fee of Rs 30 lakh, a performance bank guarantee (PBG) of Rs 40 lakh, and a financial bank guarantee (FBG) of Rs 2 lakh.

The entry fee for the circle-level category has been fixed at Rs 2 lakh, PBG Rs 2 lakh, and FBG at Rs 20,000. The entry fee, PBG, and FBG for the district level will be Rs 20,000, Rs 10,000, and Rs 2,000, respectively.

The DoT has also added a clause for the provisioning of audio text or interactive voice response service (IVRS) as part of a telecom license.

The amendment has been made across all categories of telecom service licenses.