This is in continuance of our series on consolidated FDI policy of India 2012 by DIPP. The previous articles in this regard are:(1) Consolidated FDI policy of India 2012 by DIPP: objectives,
(2) Consolidated FDI policy of India 2012 by DIPP: definitions,
(3) Consolidated FDI policy of India 2012 by DIPP: general provisions,
(4) FDI in limited liability partnerships (LLPs) in India 2012,
(5) Permissible direct and indirect foreign investment in an Indian company,
(6) Foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) and FDI policy of India 2012,
(7) Prohibited sectors under the consolidated FDI policy of India 2012,
(8) FDI in agriculture and animal husbandry under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012,
(9) FDI in mining sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012,
(10) FDI in petroleum and natural gas sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(11) FDI in micro and small enterprises (MSEs) sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(12) FDI in defence sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(13) FDI in broadcasting sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(14) FDI in print media sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(15) FDI in civil aviation sector of India under consolidated FDI policy Of India 2012
(16) FDI in courier services sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(17) FDI in construction development sector of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(18) FDI in industrial parks segment of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
(19) FDI in satellites and private security agencies sectors of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012
In this article Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) would discuss the FDI limits in telecom services, ISPs and telecom infrastructure providing sectors of India under consolidated FDI policy of India 2012.
Telecom service providers, ISPs and telecom infrastructure providers must comply with licensing and security requirements notified by the Department of Telecommunications for all services in order to make FDI in India.
FDI in telecom services is allowed upto 74% where upto 49% FDI can be made through automatic route and beyond 49% but upto 74%, FDI can be made through government approval route.
The following conditions must also be fulfilled in this regard:
(1) General Conditions:
(i) This is applicable in case of Basic, Cellular, Unified Access Services, National/ International Long Distance, V-Sat, Public Mobile Radio Trunked Services (PMRTS), Global Mobile Personal Communications Services (GMPCS) and other value added Services.
(ii) Both direct and indirect foreign investment in the licensee company shall be counted for the purpose of FDI ceiling. Foreign Investment shall include investment by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), Non-resident Indians (NRIs), Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs), American Depository Receipts (ADRs), Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) and convertible preference shares held by foreign entity. In any case, the Indian shareholding will not be less than 26 percent.
(iii) FDI in the licensee company/Indian promoters/investment companies including their holding companies shall require approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) if it has a bearing on the overall ceiling of 74 percent. While approving the investment proposals, FIPB shall take note that investment is not coming from countries of concern and/or unfriendly entities.
(iv) The investment approval by FIPB shall envisage the conditionality that Company would adhere to licence Agreement.
(v) FDI shall be subject to laws of India and not the laws of the foreign country/countries.
(2) Security Conditions:
(i) The Chief Officer In-charge of technical network operations and the Chief Security Officer should be a resident Indian citizen.
(ii) Details of infrastructure/network diagram (technical details of the network) could be provided on a need basis only to telecom equipment suppliers/manufacturers and the affiliate/parents of the licensee company. Clearance from the licensor (Department of Telecommunications) would be required if such information is to be provided to anybody else.
(iii) For security reasons, domestic traffic of such entities as may be identified /specified by the licensor shall not be hauled/routed to any place outside India.
(iv) The licensee company shall take adequate and timely measures to ensure that the information transacted through a network by the subscribers is secure and protected.
(v) The officers/officials of the licensee companies dealing with the lawful interception of messages will be resident Indian citizens.
(vi) The majority Directors on the Board of the company shall be Indian citizens. Recently, the Home Ministry of India blocked Telenor’s FIPB application on certain grounds, including absence of resident directors, and this condition has made the license conditions even more stringent.
(vii) The positions of the Chairman, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and/or Chief Financial Officer (CFO), if held by foreign nationals, would require to be security vetted by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Security vetting shall be required periodically on yearly basis. In case something adverse is found during the security vetting, the direction of MHA shall be binding on the licensee.
(viii) The Company shall not transfer the following to any person/place outside India:-
(a) Any accounting information relating to subscriber (except for international roaming/billing) (Note: it does not restrict a statutorily required disclosure of financial nature); and
(b) User information (except pertaining to foreign subscribers using Indian Operator‘s network while roaming).
(ix) The Company must provide traceable identity of their subscribers. However, in case of providing service to roaming subscriber of foreign Companies, the Indian Company shall endeavour to obtain traceable identity of roaming subscribers from the foreign company as a part of its roaming agreement.
(x) On request of the licensor or any other agency authorised by the licensor, the telecom service provider should be able to provide the geographical location of any subscriber (BTS location) at a given point of time.
(xi) The Remote Access (RA) to Network would be provided only to approved location(s) abroad through approved location(s) in India. The approval for location(s) would be given by the Licensor (DOT) in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
(xii) Under no circumstances, should any RA to the suppliers/manufacturers and affiliate(s) be enabled to access Lawful Interception System(LIS), Lawful Interception Monitoring(LIM), Call contents of the traffic and any such sensitive sector/data, which the licensor may notify from time to time.
(xiii) The licensee company is not allowed to use remote access facility for monitoring of content.
(xiv) Suitable technical device should be made available at Indian end to the designated security agency /licensor in which a mirror image of the remote access information is available on line for monitoring purposes.
(xv) Complete audit trail of the remote access activities pertaining to the network operated in India should be maintained for a period of six months and provided on request to the licensor or any other agency authorised by the licensor.
(xvi) The telecom service providers should ensure that necessary provision (hardware/software) is available in their equipment for doing the Lawful interception and monitoring from a centralized location.
(xvii) The telecom service providers should familiarize/train Vigilance Technical Monitoring (VTM)/security agency officers/officials in respect of relevant operations/features of their systems.
(xviii) It shall be open to the licensor to restrict the Licensee Company from operating in any sensitive area from the National Security angle.
(xix) In order to maintain the privacy of voice and data, monitoring shall only be upon authorisation by the Union Home Secretary or Home Secretaries of the States/Union Territories.
(xx) For monitoring traffic, the licensee company shall provide access of their network and other facilities as well as to books of accounts to the security agencies.
(xxi) The aforesaid Security Conditions shall be applicable to all the licensee companies operating telecom services covered under this circular irrespective of the level of FDI.
(xxii) Other Service Providers (OSPs), providing services like Call Centres, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), tele-marketing, tele-education, etc, and are registered with DoT as OSP. Such OSPs operate the service using the telecom infrastructure provided by licensed telecom service providers and 100% FDI is permitted for OSPs. As the security conditions are applicable to all licensed telecom service providers, the security conditions mentioned above shall not be separately enforced on OSPs.
(3) The above General Conditions and Security Conditions shall also be applicable to the companies operating telecom service(s) with the FDI cap of 49%.
(4) All the telecom service providers shall submit a compliance report on the aforesaid conditions to the licensor on 1st day of July and January on six monthly basis.
(a) FDI in ISP with gateways is allowed upto 74% where FDI upto 49% would be through automatic route and FDI beyond 49% but upto 74% would be through government approval route.
(b) FDI in ISP‘s not providing gateways i.e. without gate-ways (both for satellite and marine cables) would be allowed upto 74% where FDI upto 49% would be through automatic route and FDI beyond 49% but upto 74% would be through government approval route.
The new guidelines of August 24, 2007 Department of Telecommunications provide for new ISP licenses with FDI up to 74%.
(c) Radio paging
(d) End-to-End bandwidth
(a) FDI for infrastructure providers providing dark fiber, right of way, duct space, tower (IP Category I) is allowed upto 100% where FDI upto 49% would be through automatic route and FDI beyond 49% shall be through government approval route.
(b) Electronic Mail
(c) Voice Mail
Investment in all the above activities is subject to the conditions that such companies will divest 26% of their equity in favour of Indian public in 5 years, if these companies are listed in other parts of the world.
