TRAI has recommended clearing the outsourcing deals of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, as well as Reliance Communication’s RCOM) dual technology structure and Tata Teleservices Limited’s (TTSL) contract with Virgin Mobile.

TRAI has recommended clearing the outsourcing deals of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, as well as Reliance Communication’s (RCOM) dual technology structure and Tata Teleservices Limited’s (TTSL) contract with Virgin Mobile. The regulator has also decided that the telecom operators’ move to hive off their tower businesses into separate companies does not have an adverse impact on the government’s revenue share. The regulator had decided to study the outsourcing models adopted by several operators after TTSL asked DoT to specify the clause of the licence under which GSM players were allowed to outsource their networks and IT requirements to foreign companies. Similarly, GSM players had opposed the Tata-Virgin deal on the grounds that it led to Virgin Mobile’s entry into India as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and was in violation of existing Indian regulations which do not permit such services.