I would like to start a Call Center Business in West Bengal. However, I am not aware of the legal procedures and compliances. So would request you to please help me with this.
07 April 2012
In India you need OSP license (Other service provider license).
Other Service Provider
For applications like tele-banking, tele-medicine, tele-education, tele-trading, e-commerce, other service providers will be allowed to operate by using infrastructure provided by various access providers. No licence fee will be charged but registration for specific services being offered will be required. These service providers will not infringe on the jurisdiction of other access providers and they will not provide switched telephony.
1. Call centers
A. Guidelines for setting up the Call Centers
1 The Call Centres are permitted to Indian registered companies on non-exclusive basis.
2 The Call centers are registered under the under the Other Service Provider (OSP) category as defined in NTP’99.
3 The validity of this permission is up to 20 years from the date of issue of this letter.
4 100% FDI is permitted in Call centers.
5 The call centers has to ensure that no change in the Indian or Foreign promoters / partners or their equity participation is made without prior approval of competent authority or as per prevailing regulations.
6 The Call centers can take the resources from any authorized service provider i.e. IPLC from the authorized International Long Distance operators and local leased line from any authorized Service providers.
7 The Service providers will examine the network diagram and grant resources to the OSP as per the terms and condition of this approval and the prevailing guidelines & policy for the service from where the resources are being taken. Both the Service provider and the OSP will be responsible for any violation in the use of the resources.
8 The domestic call centres are permitted to be set up, on a separate infrastructure. However, the request of the domestic call centre to run on the existing private networks will be evaluated on case to case basis.
9 Interconnectivity of two domestic call centres of the same organizations is permissible subject to further approval from DoT.
10 Interconnectivity of the international with domestic call centre is not permitted.
11 Interconnection of Call Centres of the same group of company is permissible for redundancy, back up and load balancing subject to the prior written approval from the DoT
12 In the International Call centers, no PSTN connectivity is permitted at the Indian end. Both inbound and outbound calls are permitted from the International call centers.
13 Internet and IPLC connectivity is permitted on the same LAN at the Indian end of the International Call Center with the condition that no voice/data traffic shall be permitted from ISP to other destinations via IPLC of the call center.
14 Internet connectivity is also permitted to Domestic call centers.
15 In case the company proposes to increase the bandwidth for the approved IPLC, the company can directly approach the authorized ILD for the same and intimate the same within 15 days to DoT. However, in case the company proposes to change the POP or add another POP, the company shall approach DoT for approval.
`6 The International call centers are permitted to interconnect with the “Hot sites”, for the purpose of back up and working during disaster at the International call centre location, provided that International Call Centre operators provides the following: -
(a) A dedicated server/router at the hot site pertaining to the International Call Centre. (b) Local lease lines from the International Call Centre to the respective server dedicated for this International Call Centre at the hot site. (c) The local leased line from the hot site to the IPLC provider.
Hot sites can be used by the International Call Centre connected to it, only at the time of the disaster, by requesting the IPLC provider to switch its IPLC towards hot sites and informing the same to the DoT.
17 International Call Centre of the same Group of Company are permitted to cross map the seats for use during disaster. During normal days, original International Call Centre will use all seats but in case of disaster, cross-mapped seats will be vacated for use of the other International Call Centre and the same will be informed to the DoT.
B. Documents required for submitting the application: -
The application can be submitted on the letter-head of the applicant company. Following documents are required along with the application:-
International Call Center
a) Demand Draft of Rs 1000/- drawn in the name of “Pay & Accounts Officer (HQ), DoT”, toward the processing fees b) Address of the locations of the Indian end and foreign end where the IPLC would terminate c) Bandwidth of the IPLC d) Number of seats in the Call center e) Memorandum of Article of Association of the Company f) Schematic diagram of the Call center layout with equipment details g) Name of the foreign clients ( in case the company has not tied up with any foreign client this can be given before the start of the service)
Domestic Call Center
a) Demand Draft of Rs 1000/- drawn in the name of “Pay & Accounts Officer (HQ), DoT”, toward the processing fees. b) Address of all locations connected with leased lines or where incoming only PSTN lines are terminating. c) Bandwidth of the leased lines. d) Number of seats in the Call center. e) Memorandum of Article of Association of the Company f) Schematic diagram of the Call center layout with equipment details g) Name of the clients ( in case the company has not tied up with any client this can be given before the start of the service)
The application is to be submitted to the Assistant Director General (OSP), PIP Cell, Department of Telecommunications, 12th Floor, Sanchar Bhavan, 20 Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110 001. Telephone No. +91-11-3372075
07 April 2012
Thanks a LOT Mr. Verma for ur valuable insights and information. However I would like to know more i.e. do I need to form a pvt ltd company for this. If yes, then what are the procedures, etc.