Technology Law Advisory –OSP Regulations, 2021

INTRODUCTION

On June 23, 2021, the Department of Telecom ("DoT") released revised regulations relating to Other Service Providers ("OSP") replacing the previous OSP regulations that were issued last year. This client update provides a summary of key issues that have been addressed by the new regulations.

SUMMARY OF NEW OSP REGULATIONS

1. Effective Date. The regulations are stated to come into force immediately.
2. Who is an OSP - The regulations make it clearer as to who is an OSP. An OSP is one that provides "Voice based BPO services" to its customers. "Voice based BPO services" is defined to mean "call centre services". This narrows the scope further and largely excludes non voice based services that may involve some element of voice calls (as is the case with almost any service), In many cases however, whether or not one is an OSP would still be based on multiple factors, especially whether there is extensive PSTN and private network inter connectivity.