State-owned telecom player BSNL today tied up with Adpay Mobile Payment India and Plintron India for its virtual network operator (VNO) services, and said it expects the new revenue stream to contribute Rs 650 crore in 2018-19.
Announcing the tie-ups and commercial launch of the service, BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said the two partners will sell the company's products and SIMs topped with their own value additions.
"We are also speaking to other firms for virtual network operator services and expect this area to contribute Rs 650 crore to our topline in fiscal 2019," Shrivastava said at a conference.
A VNO provides telecom services like mobile, landline and Internet, but only as a retailer for full-fledged telecom operators.
"They (VNO partners) can do value additions and go ahead and sell the products. At the back end, voice and data will be supplied to them by us," Shrivastava told reporters.
BSNL said more companies have evinced interest in tying up with BSNL for VNO services.
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"VNOs can provide value additions in areas like insurance services or content offerings. VNOs are not competitors but effective collaborators with major telecom operators like BSNL," he said.
He said that many of the outstanding issues pertaining to VNO services including licence fee have been ironed out making this business lucrative.
The two VNOs -- Adpay Mobile Payment India and Plintron India have integrated their system with BSNL mobile infrastructure and are ready to offer services to retail customers, Shrivastava said.
For instance, AdPay licensed by Telecom Department in 2016 as first VNO and operating under brand name Aerovoyce, will provide SIM (voice and data combined, and data only) and ISP services to rural consumers.