By IANS,
New Delhi : The government will soon come out with a policy on Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), a senior official of the Department Of Telecommunications (DoT) said here Tuesday.
“MVNO policy is under consideration and we are hoping to come out with the policy by January 5, 2009, that is the last application date,” DoT Joint Secretary J.S. Deepak said Tuesday on the sidelines of 3G pre-bid conference.
MVNO is a company that provides mobile phone service but does not have its own licensed frequency allocation of radio spectrum, nor does it necessarily have the entire infrastructure required to provide mobile telephone service.
The first commercially successful MVNO model was Virgin Mobile UK, launched in Britain and now boasting over four million customers.
Virgin Mobile has already partnered with India’s Tata Teleservices (TTSL) in order to enter the Indian market but under a franchise agreement to offer innovative service.
At the recent launch of the state-run operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam’s third generation (3G) service, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced that “the possibility of mobile virtual network operators is also being considered”.