The Department of Telecom (DoT) has eased the rules for registration, submission of bank guarantee and other norms for other service providers (OSP) in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology-enabled services (ITes).

Recall your basics from NCERT books… Sectors of the Economy … More precisely, the Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary Sectors.

What are Other Service Providers (OSP)?

• OSPs or other service providers are companies or firms which provide secondary or tertiary services such as telemarketing, telebanking or telemedicine for various companies, banks or hospital chains, respectively.
• As computers made their foray into the Indian information technology space, a number of such OSPs, which were either voice or non-voice based, came into the market.
• The sector required minimal investment but gave great returns in business, which prompted a large number of individuals and companies to float other service providing firms.

Registration of OSPs

• The new telecom policy of 1999 suggested that all OSPs register themselves so that the government could keep a check on the usage of its resources.
• Since most of these firms used leased telephone lines, this in turn used the telecom spectrum auctioned by the DoT, hence facing the regulation.
• Further, the registration was also made mandatory to ensure that firms did not establish fake OSPs which swindled customers under the garb of providing telebanking and other such sensitive services.

What were the various registration norms for OSPs?

• To start services in India, OSPs had to register themselves with the DoT and declare to the government as to how many employees were working in the firm as well as the area of service it was engaged in.
• For example, if a firm wished to provide telebanking services, it had to tell the government the number of people working with the BPO and the state that firms catered to.
• Further, the OSPs also have to declare whether they were providing services to domestic firms or international firms, and the nature of services being offered.

Significance of the new guidelines

• The guidelines will make it easier for BPOs and ITes firms in many ways, such as cutting down on the cost of location, rent for premises and other ancillary costs such as electricity and internet bills.
• The doing away of registration norms will also mean that there will be no renewal of such licenses and therefore will invite foreign companies to set up or expand their other service providing units in India.
• This change, in line with the norms of countries in the West can also allow employees to opt for freelancing for more than one company while working from home, thereby attracting more workers in the sector.

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