Cisco's subsidiary Webex India gets licence to offer telecom connectivity

US telecom gear maker Cisco's subsidiary Webex India has received a telecom licence from the government that will enable it to provide enterprise grade national and international telecom connectivity.

Webex has become the first Over-The-Top (OTT) player to get a telecom licence.

At present, the company is a web-conferencing platform for enterprises. It has already procured a virtual network operator licence in July.

"We can confirm that Cisco was granted a telecom licence. This licence will enable us to offer enhanced Webex collaboration services to our partners and customers in India," a Cisco spokesperson told PTI on Tuesday.

Webex has obtained the Unified Licence for national long distance and international long distance services.

A company official said the licence will enable it to connect with local and international data centre on its own and in a secured manner.

The licence will be used to enhance Webex platform and not for competing with existing customers specially telecom operators, the official added.

The Department of Telecom has already sought views of sector regulator Trai to prepare a framework for regulating internet calling and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Google Meet.

Webex is one of the OTT platforms which supports calling and messaging services.

DoT has sent back recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on internet telephony issued in 2008 for review. It has asked the regulator to come up with a comprehensive reference due to the change in technical environment amid the emergence of new technologies.

The issue of ISPs providing internet telephony services was raised by telecom operators in 2016-17 during the discussions on net neutrality.

However, at that time, the government did not impose any restrictions on call and messaging services being provided by OTT platforms.