In 2016, the Department of Telecommunications (‘DoT’) had issued Guidelines for Grant of Unified License Virtual Network Operators (‘Unified License Guidelines’) to facilitate delinking of licensing of networks from the delivery of services. Under such guidelines, Category B licenses were issued with the validity of one year and subsequently extended from time to time.By way of notification dated August 31, 2018, the DoT has issued revised guidelines for the grant of a new category of license to Virtual Network Operators (‘VNO’) viz. UL (VNO) Category B. A new application may be submitted by the existing Category B license holders within a period of six weeks from August 31, 2018, failing which such existing licenses will cease to exist. The new license shall be valid for a period of 10 years. The total amount of entry fee is required to be the cumulative entry fee of each authorization subject to a maximum of Rs. 75 million (approx. US$1.01 million).The basic features of the licence includes: (i) treating VNOs as an extension of Network Service Operators (‘NSO’) or Telecom Service Providers, and not allowing them to install equipment interconnecting with the network of other NSOs; and (ii) enabling the applicant to apply for the license along with any one or more additional services such as internet services. Some key requirements under the revised guidelines for the grant of new license are: (i) the applicant must be an Indian company or a partnership firm or an organization registered under the relevant Shops and Establishment Act or a legal person for Access Services Category B license; (ii) one applicant can have only one licence; (iii) the total composite foreign holding in the applicant shall be governed by extant foreign direct investment policy; (iv) no restriction on the number of VNO licensees per service area; and (v) the following entities in the same service area should not have any beneficial interest in each other directly or indirectly: (a) VNO or its promoter(s) and another NSO (other than the VNO’s parent NSO) or its promoter(s); (b) VNO or its promoter(s) and another VNO or its promoter(s), authorized to provide access services using the access spectrum of NSO(s).