India restricts telecom license to allow machine-to-machine communication

The Telecommunications Bureau changed its telecommunications license on Monday to enable service providers to roll out machine-to-machine communications. This service is considered the main driver of 5G adoption. 

M2M is a critical factor in 5G adoption, while the change has been made to all levels of telecom service licenses.  

As TSPs offer such M2M communication services over their commercial network and technology, both sides just happen to be machined, earlier from P2P, A2P, and P2A communication.  

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has also added conditions for provisioning audiotex or interactive voice response services (IVRS) as part of its telecommunications license.  

In addition, amendments have been made across all categories of telecommunications service licenses.  

M2M communication is a form of data communication requiring one or more entities that do not necessarily require human interaction or intervention in the process of communication, according to DoT. M2M is also called Machine Type Communication (MTC) in 3GPP.  

According to a PTI report, while the DoT had issued the M2M guidelines in May 2018, the clause relating to their provision was not a part of the telecom license. According to a circular, the DoT has incorporated M2M with a pan-India permit, limited to circle level and district level.  

It is worth mentioning that Telecom operators interested in providing M2M services across India will have an entry fee of $40.2, a performance bank guarantee (PBG) of $53.6, and a financial bank guarantee (FBG) of $2.6.  

The entry fee for the circle level category has been fixed at $2.6, PBG at $2.6, and FBG at $268. The district level’s entry fee, PBG, and FBG will be $268, $134, and $26, respectively.