OSPs guidelines liberalised govt announcement new features ravi shankar prasad announcement

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Govt liberalizes guidelines for OSPs; no distinction between domestic, international: Prasad

The government on Wednesday further liberalized the guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSPs).In a press conference, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications and IT, said that the latest guidelines further liberalized the special dispensation given to OSPs in addition to the major measures already announced and implemented in November, 2020.

These entities are business process outsourcing (BPO) organisations giving Voice based services, in India and abroad.

Meanwhile, Prasad informed that India’s BPO industry is one of the largest in the world. "Today India’s IT-BPM industry stands at US$ 37.6 billion (2019-20) i.e. Rs. 2.8 lakh crores approx. giving job opportunities to lakhs of youths in the country. Further it has a potential for double digit growth reaching upto US$ 55.5 billion i.e. Rs. 3.9 lakh crores by 2025," he said.

WHAT NEW LIBERALISED GUIDELINES SAY

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 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 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 trust Government has in business.
Further liberalization of Guidelines today will provide a big fillip for growth of OSP industry in India. This will create immense opportunities, income and employment in India.

WHAT OLD LIBERALISED GUIDELINES SAY