Does Virgin Mobile Have An MVNO License In India?
While we’re still waiting for Richard Branson’s proposed return to India for the formal announcement of their mobile venture in the country, the GSM operators association COAI is making an issue of the legality of Virgin’s entry: the COAI has asked clarification from the Department of Communications about whether Virgin has been issued India’s first Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), reports the Financial Times.
MVNOs are entities that buy network capacity from mobile operators and offer services and content under a separate brand. Due to the relative network capacity crunch in India, they are legally not permitted to operate here. While Branson has so far refused to talk about the details of their arrangement, it’s an open secret that Virgin is entering India as a joint venture partner with Tata Teleservices. It is thus restricted to one carrier, and is not carrier-agnostic…so why is the COAI making an issue? In the meantime, I’ve heard that Virgin has been on something of a hiring spree, which may have hit the existing mobile operators and VAS companies hard. The FT report quotes COAI stating that Virgin Mobile’s (NYSE: VM) announcement is due this week…I haven’t heard about it – and if someone from Virgin is reading this – let me know about the presscon – nikhil AT contentsutra DOT com. Oh, and Virginmobile.in is still under construction, and they’ve also booked Virginmobile.co.in.
AFAIK they have a JV in which Virgin will bring Brand and marketing know how , Global Product and TATA Tele will bring Network Infra . for all practical purpose this arrangement is similar to MVNO . and i think its OK with Indian LAW . a More important point to note us that will Virgin be launching a CDMA service or GSM ? Almost everyone they hired is from a GSM background .
AFAIK if you are renting infra ( BASE stations tower,OFC,Nw Op Center ) you can deploy any kind of service . TATA Tele is a CDMA service and i don't think Virgin want to go for CDMA given that India is a GSM market and once number portability is there it will be easy to poach users from existing operators . this can be a way for TATA Tele to get a slice of GSM Action . This will bring a much needed competition in telecom market place . will see good action in coming months .
Virgin is into CDMA…
no.. since there is no such license available currently in india
Legalities seem very dicey to me. Just cause you use capacity of just one operator, doesnt mean you arent an MVNO. If I remember correctly Helio uses only Sprints network in the US. If Virgin is allowed because the business agreement shows a JV rather than a leasing of capacity, thats a pretty transparent workaround existing law.
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