ISP License Features that no one talks about

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isp license

The ISP license to setup your Internet Service Providing or ISP Centre is India is the ISP License. Many are looking for it, but only some are capable of getting it. From the Department of Telecommunication’s stringent rules for the license to the lack of DOT consultants make it difficult for everyone to get ISP License in India.

But those two aren’t the only reason that it’s difficult.

As India’s premiere DOT consultants, we come across several prospects for ISP License. All of them are eager, but none of them seems to be possessing the knowledge about the license. We don’t blame any of them. The current information that’s floating around online about this License India is confusing. It goes over the heads of even some of our own professionals. So, we had to take steps to rectify that.

With this article, we are going decode – simplify – the term ISP license for you. There are features of ISP License that no one talks about, and we are here to shed a light over them as well.

ISP License has three categories, but not all of them are applicable everywhere

Traditionally, there are only three categories of ISP License in India, and they are as follows;

  1. Category A ISP to provide internet services in whole India. It’s notorious for costing the highest License fees.
  2. Category B ISP to provide internet services in states. The ISP License fee for this is lower than category A.
  3. Category C ISP to provide internet services within a Secondary Switching Area. A secondary switching area is referred to as one block of an indeterminate size. It can be as small as a colony, but also can be as big as half a state.

In places like Delhi, ISP category C license is now applicable. Why? It’s because the category B license doesn’t only cover the state,  but also metropolitan cities.

Not every ISP License is a unified license

Because it’s important to maintain relevance on internet, many (even us) have resorted of using Unified License everywhere when License is being discussed. Unified license means a license that unifies all categories of ISPs. Thus, it’s not applicable on category B or category C, only being applicable on category A.

Other License Related Content: Payment Gateway License

VNO is a better alternative of Category C ISP License

If you want to provide internet services only within a secondary switching area, you should know that a VNO ISP is a much better option than an ISP. Whenever we are discussing the battle between VNO License and this License, we always get stuck with the ISP License cost in India. Whenever we talk about the third category of the license, we always paint it as the cheap one. However, a category C VNO is cheaper than a Category C ISP. How?

  1. As you’re running a VNO, no hardware is needed from your end.
  2. As a VNO, you only need to decide how to resell the bought bandwidth, nothing else.
  3. A VNO License doesn’t require depositing the performance bank guarantee, which is a big chunk of the ISP License price.

As an Internet Service Provider, you’d be held solely responsible for the downtime

No one knows when the light is going to go out. The electricity in India, despite all the efforts by the government, is abysmal. So, if you ever lose power in your ISP, then as per the ISP license agreement, the customers would consider you responsible for the loss of internet.

It’s the ISP that provides the underline infrastructure

One thing you should know about starting an ISP is that you’re not the producer of bandwidth. When you get ISP License through online registration, you already have multiple telecom service providers to buy the bandwidth from. You resell those internet bandwidth to the suppliers.

BUT, the telecom industry only sells you the bandwidth. It doesn’t provide you the equipment. It neither decides or provides you the infrastructure. You have to provide every infrastructure on your own. it is a superior way to provide high quality services, but it’s not a cost effective one.

Conclusion

Many people come to our License consultant with the question of how to get ISP License in India, and they always expect the same answer. They want the process to be easy and the cost to be low. But it can’t always be that way. Providing internet is a cost-heavy job. If you’re trying to do it through ISP, you’ll have to pay more to the government. However, if you still want to provide internet services, you can choose VNO. Our hope is to start a discussion among license seekers about these features that no one talks about.

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