Lok Sabha Question No. 928 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-02-08
Subject: Call Centres
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: DARSHANA VIKRAM JARDOSH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS  AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.  928

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 08.02.2017

## CALL CENTRES

## 928.     SHRIMATI  DARSHANA VIKRAM  JARDOSH:

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state: -

- (a) the number of Call Centres functioning round the clock;
- (b) whether there are any guidelines or rules for the functioning of these call centres; and
- (c) if so, the details thereof and if not whether the Government is considering to issue any guidelines in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

(a)  to  (c):      As  per  Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT),  Telecom  Enforcement  Resource  and Monitoring (TERM) Cells register the Other Service Providers (OSPs) throughout the country in their respective jurisdiction which includes call centres also. Separate data of call centres is not maintained by TERM Cells. The OSP  means  a  company  providing  Application  Services  like  call  centre,  tele-banking,  tele-medicine,  teleeducation, tele-trading, e-commerce, network operation centre and other IT Enabled Services, by using Telecom Resources  provided  by  Authorised  Telecom  Service  Providers.  The  revised  Terms  and  Conditions  for  the registration  of  the  OSP  were  issued  vide  No.18-  2/2008-CS-I  Dated:  5 th August,  2008.  These  terms  and conditions and their amendments are available on DoT website at the link http://dot.gov.in/relatedlinks/registration-under-other-service-providers-osp-category.

In Telecom sector, country is divided into 22 License Service Area (LSA) which generally are co-terminus with States, and each LSA has a TERM Cell. As on 31.12.2016, total 10,152 OSPs were registered with various LSA (details are at Annexure-I ).

As  per  Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT),  the  salient  features  of  guidelines  for  OSP  (includes  call centres) are at Annexure-II .

********

## Annexure-I

| Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016   | Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016   | Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016   | Registered OSP Data as on 31-12-2016                             |
|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| S.No.                                  | Licensed Service Area (LSA)            | Total Registered OSP as on 31.12.2016  | Area of Jurisdiction                                             |
| 1                                      | Andhra Pradesh                         | 1133                                   | Andhra Pradesh, Telangana                                        |
| 2                                      | Assam                                  | 28                                     | Assam                                                            |
| 3                                      | Bihar                                  | 26                                     | Bihar, Jharkhand                                                 |
| 4                                      | Delhi                                  | 2094                                   | Delhi including Ghaziabad, NOIDA, Faridabad and Gurgaon          |
| 5                                      | Gujarat                                | 418                                    | Gujarat including UT of Daman &Diu and UT of Dadra &Nagar Haveli |
| 6                                      | Haryana                                | 7                                      | Haryana excluding Faridabad &Gurgaon                             |
| 7                                      | Himachal Pradesh                       | 14                                     | Himachal Pradesh                                                 |
| 8                                      | J&K                                    | 19                                     | J&K                                                              |
| 9                                      | Karnataka                              | 1387                                   | Karnataka                                                        |
| 10                                     | Kerala                                 | 205                                    | Kerala and UT of Lakshdweep                                      |

| 11   | Kolkata              |   816 | Kolkata                                                           |
|------|----------------------|-------|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 12   | Madhya Pradesh       |   128 | Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh                                   |
| 13   | Maharashtra          |   825 | Maharashtra excluding Mumbai                                      |
| 14   | Mumbai               |  1304 | Mumbai                                                            |
| 15   | North East           |     8 | Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur |
| 16   | Odisha               |    37 | Odisha                                                            |
| 17   | Punjab               |   338 | Punjab and UT of Chandigarh                                       |
| 18   | Rajasthan            |   123 | Rajasthan                                                         |
| 19   | Tamilnadu            |  1061 | Tamilnadu and UT of Pudducherry                                   |
| 20   | Uttar Pradesh (East) |    90 | UP(E)                                                             |
| 21   | Uttar Pradesh (West) |    65 | UP(W) (excluding Ghaziabad and Noida city) + Uttarakhand          |
| 22   | West Bengal          |    26 | West Bengal (excluding Kolkata) + Sikkim + UT of Andaman &Nicobar |
|      | Total                | 10152 |                                                                   |

## Annexure-II

## Salient features of guidelines for OSP (includes call centres)

- 1) Registration may be granted to any company to provide Application Services. These service providers will not infringe on the jurisdiction of other Authorised Telecom Service Providers and they will not provide switched telephony.
- 2) Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Firms registered under LLP Act, 2008 have been included in the current OSP registration Policy for registration under OSP category.
- 3) Companies registered under Indian Companies Act-2013, as amended from time to time, are also entitled for registration under OSP category, in addition to the companies registered under Indian Companies Act-1956.
- 4) A Company may apply for registration to the Telecom Enforcement and Resource Monitoring (TERM) Cell of DoT in the prescribed proforma.
- 5) The registration is location specific, so a company may have more than one registration. Any change in the location of OSP Centre shall require amendment in the original registration.
- 6) A processing fee of Rs. 1000/- is payable along with the application for registration in the form of a demand draft from a scheduled bank in favour of the concerned Accounts Officer of  registering authority.
- 7)  The  validity  of  the  registration  shall  be  20  years  from  the  date  of  issue,  unless  otherwise  mentioned  in  the registration letter.
- 8) The validity of the registration may be extended, if deemed expedient, the period of registration by 10 years at one time, upon request of the OSP, if made during the 19 th year of the registration period on the terms mutually agreed. The decision of the Authority shall be final in regard to the grant of extension.
- 9) The list of documents required for OSP registration is given below:

## (A) Mandatory Documents:

|   S. No. | Documents required to be submitted in case of Company                                              | Documents required to be submitted in case of LLP                                                                                                                         |
|----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Certificate of Incorporation issued by Registrar of Companies                                      | Certificate of Incorporation issued by Registration Authority of LLPs                                                                                                     |
|        2 | Memorandum and Article of Association                                                              | Copy of Agreement among all the partners of LLP                                                                                                                           |
|        3 | Board Resolution or Power of Attorney authorising the authorized signatory with attested signature | Resolution passed by designated partners or all the partners authorizing the authorized signatory with attested signature or as per provisions of LLP agreement / LLP Act |
|        4 | A note on the nature of business / activities of the proposed OSP                                  | A note on the nature of business / activities of the proposed OSP                                                                                                         |

## (B) Documents required to be submitted, if actual information is different from mandatory documents:

|   S. No. | Documents required to be submitted in case of Company   | Documents required to be submitted in case of LLP   |
|----------|---------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | List of present Directors of the                        | List of present Designated partners                 |

|    | company                                                                                                  | and all the partners of the LLP                                                                                                        |
|----|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  2 | Present shareholding pattern of the company indicating equity details (Indian equity and Foreign equity) | Present shareholding pattern of the LLP indicating equity/ contribution details of all the partners (Indian equity and Foreign equity) |

- (C)  (i) All the documents must be certified with seal by either company secretary or one of the Directors of the company or statutory auditors or public notary in case of company.
- (ii)  All  the  documents  must  be  certified  with  seal  by  either  designated  partners  or  all  the  partners  or  statutory auditors or public notary in case of LLP.
- (iii)  The  LLP  Firm  shall  intimate  to  the  Department  within  30  days,  if  there  is  any  change  in  the  designated partners, authorised signatory, and/or Agreement of LLP.

********