Disillusioned ISPs Take DoT to TDSAT on UMS licensing

According to reliable industry sources, the ISP Association of India (ISPAI) has filed a case with Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) over the recently announced guidelines for providing Unified Messaging Services (UMS). The department is accused of "cutting the scope of services already provided in the ISP policy". An already disillusioned lot, ISPs are of the feeling that the least that the government could have done in these times of economic slowdown is to give some relief to ISPs in terms of freedom of operation and not insist on putting salt on the industry's wounds. The contention of the ISPs is that UMS is nothing but a content service, a value added item in its services basket, that it is free to provide under the terms and conditions of the ISP
licence.

The Department of Telecommunications recently released the proposal and guidelines inviting companies to obtain licences for offering UMS along with voice mail/audiotex services. While the guidelines says that a company should already have an ISP licence to be eligible to offer UMS services, it seems quite obvious that existing ISP licensees would also have to once again shell out bank guarantees of Rs 3 lakh per Short Distance Calling Areas (SDCAs)–there are 2,700 SDCAs in the country–and undergo the painstaking procedure of obtaining the
licences.