OPPORTUNITY FOR VARIOUS CONTENT PROVIDERS TO PROVIDE VALUE ADDED SERVICES ON BSNL

OPPORTUNITY FOR VARIOUS CONTENT PROVIDERS TO PROVIDE VALUE ADDED SERVICES ON BSNL�s CMTS NETWORK FOR MOBILE CUSTOMERS AND ON ITS PSTN NETWORK FOR LANDLINE CUSTOMERS

BSNL wants to provide various content based Value Added Services (VAS) to its Cellular Mobile Telephony & Landline customers on various platforms like SMS, WAP/GPRS, IVR, etc. Proposals are accordingly invited from interested companies for providing these services on non-exclusive, revenue sharing & franchise basis. The concerned content providers/companies can offer the services to BSNL's subscribers after entering into an agreement with BSNL.

The salient points of the various Agreements and related eligibility conditions (specific as well as general) for different types of services are given below.

A. VALUE ADDED SERVICES ON CMTS NETWORK

1. SMS BASED VALUE ADDED SERVICES

The SMS based Value added services (VAS) have been broadly categorized into PULL based services and the PUSH based services. For the sake of understanding, the PULL based services shall be those where the subscriber asks/ requests/ solicits for information/response for each query/ SMS sent to the application server on per message originated (MO) basis. On the other hand, in case of PUSH based services, the response/ information is sent to the subscriber who has expressed his/her consent/ concurrence / willingness to receive such response/ information or solicited such response/ information on periodic basis at some point of time and not necessarily on per MO basis as in case of PULL based services.

BSNL signs separate agreements for the PULL based services and the PUSH based services.

1.1 PULL based services

1.1.1�� The interested companies can provide the SMS based VAS either by signing the direct agreement with BSNL or using the SMS gateways of the existing franchisees of BSNL.

BSNL has already permitted its existing franchisees like Mobile 365(India), IMI Software, OnMobile, Cellnext, etc to facilitate the operation of additional 3^rd Party short codes through their SMS gateways. Interested companies can contact these franchisees for operating their short codes through their gateways.

The direct agreements are of two categories:-

A. SMS BASED VAS OVER SHORT CODE

The agreement is signed on Zonal basis: EAST, WEST, NORTH & SOUTH, which have been defined as below.

ZONE	LICENSED SERVICE AREAS COVERED UNDER THE ZONE
EAST	Orissa, West Bengal including A&N, Calcutta Telecom District, Bihar including Jharkhand, Assam, NE-I including NE-II
WEST	Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh including Chhatisgarh
NORTH	Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, UP (East), UP (West) including Uttranchal, Rajasthan
SOUTH	Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai Telecom District

� Marketing, advertising and promotion of services besides sourcing the content for the services is to be done by the franchisee at its own costs.

� The required SMPP connectivity to the SMSC of BSNL is provided by BSNL and can be accessed by the franchisee over the Internet (IP) cloud.

� The revenue share on MO SMS is linked to the traffic generated per zone per calendar month whereas the revenue share on MT varies across the categories of services like Premium Text, Premium Non-text, etc.

B. SMS BASED VAS ON OVER THE AIR (OTA) PLATFORM

� BSNL has OTA Platform in all the four zones (EAST, WEST, NORTH & SOUTH) in its CMTS Mobile network through which VAS can be provided to BSNL�s Cellular Mobile subscribers.

� The agreement is signed on per zone basis as per specified zones based on licensed service areas as already described under Para 1.1 above.

� Marketing, Advertising and promotion of services besides sourcing the content for the services is to be done by the franchisee at its own costs.

� The required SMPP connectivity to the SMSC of BSNL is provided by BSNL and can be accessed by the franchisee over the Internet (IP) cloud.

� Only those services shall be considered for deployment through OTA, which generate huge traffic on a short code otherwise.

The agreement can be signed with eligible companies for either six months duration or one year duration. In case of six month�s agreement, the company has to make the non-refundable payment of Rs 2.5 lakhs before signing the agreement, whereas in case of one year agreement, the payment is of Rs 4.5 lakhs. �This payment is for providing services across all four zones. In case the company opts for lesser number of zones, the payment will be on pro-rata basis. The renewal or the extension of the agreement may be considered only if the monthly SMS traffic generated across all four zones of BSNL�s network is in excess of one lakh MO SMS.

1.2 PUSH BASED SERVICES

Such agreements facilitate the provision of the enterprise-based services to the customers of interested enterprises. The required SMPP connectivity shall be facilitated at a single SMSC for a single company. The Format of the message to be pushed, frequency & schedule of pushing such messages, Message source identity, etc. shall be decided by the Companies in consultation with Zonal CMTS Wing of BSNL Unit.

� BSNL shall charge a fixed amount per one SMS comprising 160 characters. BSNL shall raise the bills on monthly basis.

� BSNL shall levy Bank Guarantee of Rs TEN lacs per such Agreement so as to securitize the payment to BSNL. The Bank Guarantee amount may be increased by BSNL in direct proportion to the monthly bill payable to BSNL, if the need arises.

� The period of agreement is one year, which may be extended on yearly basis.

� The company signing the agreements with BSNL shall ensure that a proper mechanism to record the request of the subscribers willing to avail the services under this agreement & to stop sending the PUSH message(s) to unwilling subscribers, is setup before services under this agreement are commissioned.

� The Company signing the agreements with BSNL should have agreements with the companies at the back end for whom the PUSH based services are to be provided.

2. MMS/GPRS BASED VALUE ADDED SERVICES

BSNL is presently providing the MMS/ GPRS based Value added services under its own branding through its WAPsite (wap.cellone.in) / website (www.cellone.in). In addition, BSNL is permitting the provision of such content-based services on non-exclusive, revenue sharing & franchise basis. However, no third party links are presently permitted on bsnl's wap portal (wap.cellone.in)

The brief of such arrangement is as below:

� The agreement is signed on Zonal basis: EAST, WEST, NORTH & SOUTH, which have been defined above

� The Period of Agreement is one year, which may be further EXTENDED OR renewed on yearly basis provided the company is able to generate the monthly traffic across BSNL�s network in excess of one lakh MO SMS during the term of the earlier agreement.

� Marketing, Advertising and Promotion of services besides sourcing the content for the services is to be done by the franchisee at its own costs.

� BSNL shall facilitate the connectivity to its relevant network element(s) for providing such services.

� The services will be provided by the franchisees under their own branding on revenue sharing basis. The details of the revenue sharing & other conditions are given in the agreement.

3. STREAMING BASED VALUE ADDED SERVICES

The CMTS network of BSNL is having the EDGE/GPRS capability at many cities. The services requiring streaming can be facilitated using EDGE/GPRS. The Companies interested in providing such services to the subscribers of BSNL can forward their proposals to BSNL for consideration.

4. VOICE BASED VALUE ADDED SERVICES ON CMTS NETWORK - on Licensed Service Area basis

� The agreement is signed on per Licensed Service Area (LSA) basis. The LSAs are as mentioned under the Cellular Mobile Telephony service license as per details given under Para 1.1 above.

� The agreement is signed both, with Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) option and without PBG option. The PBG amount is Rs Three Lakhs per LSA. The revenue share payable to the franchisee is lower in case of NO PBG option.

� The period of Agreement is one year, which may be extended on yearly basis.

� Marketing, advertising and promotion of services besides sourcing the content for the services is to be done by the franchisee at its own costs.

� Services like News headlines, Reminder service, Ring tone download, Music messaging, Commentary, Sports update, Finance up date, etc may form part of the service portfolio.

� Presently access to service is restricted within a LSA with a provision of review at a later stage.

� The IVRS set up of the franchise may be located in BSNL premises or within 2.5 kms from BSNL exchange for free of cost provisioning of E1 links. The Co-location, power & A/C charges are payable to BSNL by the franchisee as per rates decided.

� The mutually agreed revenue share payable to the franchisee will be settled monthly on the basis of cumulative minutes as per CDRs generated for the calls answered by the franchise set up.

� Two price points are presently available for providing services under this arrangement i.e. Rs 3.60 per minute & Rs 5 per minute. The Rs 5 price point is permitted in case of multimodal system based services facilitating the direct access to any menu item/ sub-menu (bypassing main menu) by means of a pre-designated dialing code and support of various bearers like Voice, SMS, WAP, etc for enhanced interaction between the system & caller and/or delivery of requested content/ alerts.

� The dialing code for this option will be 1250xyz/ 1255xyz. The case may be considered for 12ABCD or 125ABCD, depending upon the availability & feasibility.

5. VOICE BASED VAS ON PREMIUM UAN (UNIVERSAL ACCESS NUMBER) THROUGHOUT THE CMTS NETWORK

The content providers can now use the PREMIUM UAN (Universal Access Number) facility on the IN platform of BSNL to provide various content based Value Added Services on BSNL's CMTS network as well as PSTN. The main highlights of the arrangement are as below:

The agreement will initially be for ONE year, which could later be extended on mutually agreed basis.

� The marketing/ advertising/ promotion of the services along with the sourcing of the content will be the responsibility of the franchisee. The franchisee shall undertake such activities at its own costs.

� The service portfolio shall be finalised by BSNL in consultation with the franchisee.

� The services can be presently provided on 30 seconds pulse rate.

� The revenue share payable to the franchisee is linked to the monthly cumulative call minutes generated by the callers from the CMTS network as well as the PSTN of BSNL at the termination point. The details of the revenue share are contained in the agreement, which shall be given only to those companies whose papers as asked for in the later part of this document, are found to be complete.

� The franchisee may set up the IVR at a single location or at multiple locations, anywhere in BSNL's licensed service area, depending upon its call traffic routing requirements.

� The franchisee shall have to pay for the E1/ PRIs extended by BSNL for connecting the IVR setup of the franchisee to its network at the normal commercial rates.

� The franchisee will not be required to pay any processing charges for the UAN activated for this purpose.

� The numbering scheme will be 1869-424-ABCD where ABCD will be as per the franchisee's choice out of the available numbers.

B. VALUE ADDED SERVICES ON PSTN

1. VOICE BASED VALUE ADDED SERVICES on PSTN - on Telecom circle basis

The Agreement is signed on per Telecom Circle basis where a circle is as defined under the Basic Telephony Service license granted by DOT to BSNL.
The agreement is signed with PBG and the amount of PBG is Rs One Lakh per Telecom circle.
Period of agreement is one year, which may be extended on yearly basis.
Marketing, advertising and promotion of services besides sourcing the content for the services is to be done by the franchisee at its own costs.

� Services like Tele- Horoscope/ Tele- Astrology/ Music-on-demand/ News-on-demand/ Opinion polls/ Quiz/ Contests / City Infoline, etc may constitute the service portfolio.

� The Franchisee has to setup the IVRS in the circle for which it has signed the agreement. The subscribers of other circle(s) will not have access to the services provided through the IVR setup of the said circle.

� The service can be provided on the pulse rates of either 60 secs or 30 secs. The revenue share payable to the franchisee varies depending on the pulse rate agreed upon.

� The IVR set up of the franchise can be located in BSNL premises or within 2.5 kms from BSNL exchange for free of cost of cost provisioning of E1 links. Co location, Power & A/C charges are payable to BSNL by the franchisee as per rates decided.

� The dialing code for this option will be 1250xyz/ 1255xyz. The case may be considered for 12ABCD or 125ABCD, depending upon the availability & feasibility.

The callers need to dial 1250xyz/ 1255xyz, as applicable, to access the services of the franchisee.

2. VOICE BASED VAS ON PREMIUM UAN (UNIVERSAL ACCESS NUMBER) THROUGHOUT THE PSTN

� The agreement will initially be for ONE year, which could later be extended on mutually agreed basis.

� The service portfolio shall be finalized by BSNL in consultation with the franchisee.

� The services can be presently provided on 30 seconds pulse rate.

� The franchisee may set up the IVR at a single location or at multiple locations, anywhere in BSNL's licensed service area, depending upon its call traffic routing requirements.

� The franchisee shall have to pay for the E1/ PRIs extended by BSNL for connecting the IVR setup of the franchisee to its network at the normal commercial rates.

� The franchisee will not be required to pay any processing charges for the UAN activated for this purpose.

� The numbering scheme will be 1869-424-ABCD where ABCD will be as per the franchisee's choice out of the available numbers.

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS FOR SIGNING THE AGREEMENTS

1. The Company signing the agreement should be registered & incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 1956.
2. The turnover of the Company should be Rs One crore in one of the following areas or any combination thereof:

o Telecom Applications or

o IT applications or

o Content provisioning or

o Content development or

o Content applications development

The requirement is of Rs Three Crores for signing the Premium UAN agreement, in lieu of Rs One crore as above.

3. The Company signing the agreement shall not have an equity stake in & of any Basic Services /Cellular Mobile Telephony Services/ Internet services/ NLD/ ILD/Unified access services operating companies.

4. The Company signing the agreement should not be a licensed Telecom Service Provider/ Operator for any of the Services listed below anywhere in India.

Basic Telephony Services
Internet services
Cellular Mobile Telephony Services
Unified access services
National Long Distance Services
International Long Distance Services

GENERAL CONDITIONS

BSNL reserves the right not to sign an agreement with any company without assigning any reason whatsoever and without thereby assigning any liability to the affected party on the ground of BSNL?s action(s).

BSNL also reserves the right to consider some changes in the existing guidelines on case-by-case basis depending upon the merits of the case and the services proposed.

If you ARE INTERESTED in providing the services on BSNL?s network.

Please forward your proposal for processing at our end at the following address:

O/o The Dy Director General (New Services)
BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED

CORPORATE OFFICE
10 th floor, West Wing, Chandralok Building
36, Janpath, New Delhi-110 001
Tel 011-23323957/23315477
FAX no. 011- 23323367

Your proposal should contain the following details:

The details of the services you want to provide on BSNL's network (clearly mentioning whether CMTS network or the PSTN)
The area or the zone(s) in which you want to provide these services
The details of the similar services being provided to other Licensed Operators
The compliance of the various eligibility conditions mentioned above
The business case outlining the investments made/to be made, service proposed along with the payouts involved, if any, traffic anticipated, revenues anticipated, etc (required in case of new services)
The following documents pertaining to your company
Articles of Association & Memorandum of Association of the Company,

? Latest Annual Report of the Company,

? Duly attested turnover certificate given by the Company?s auditor/CA/CS (specifying the turnover in the field listed under the eligibility conditions)

? List of the Directors on the Board of the Company (as on date) including their name(s), address (s) and contact telephone numbers (office & residence), DIN of the Directors & CIN of the company, duly signed by the authorized signatory

? Power of attorney in favour of authorized signatory on non-judicial stamp paper of appropriate value and duly attested by a Notary Public or registered before sub-registrar of the state Rs.50/-), accompanied with the copy of the resolution passed by the Board/Management of the Company to issue a power of Attorney

? Specimen signature(s) of authorized signatory duly attested by any scheduled Bank

? Non-disclosure Undertaking (on non-judicial stamp paper of Rs. 50/-) (format enclosed)

The copy of the agreement containing the commercial, financial conditions & the technical conditions, to be signed for providing these services shall be forwarded to you after evaluating the above documents.

Please note that the requests on FAX/e-mail will not be entertained.

FORMAT OF THE NON-DISCLOSURE UNDERTAKING

(To be submitted duly notarized on non-judicial stamp paper of Rs. 50/-)

M/s , a company registered under the Companies Act 1956, having its registered office at ______________________________________acting through Shri _________________________________, the Authorized signatory ( which expression shall, unless repugnant to the context, include its successors in business, administrators, liquidators and assigns or legal representatives) hereby declare and undertake that we will not divulge any part of this agreement either through oral or written communication or through any mode to any one.

We further undertake and declare that we shall be responsible for safe custody of the Papers/ documents including the Franchise Agreement proposed to be entered into between M/s BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED and ourselves. We shall take all necessary steps to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of the Franchise Agreement and shall use our best endeavors to secure that no person acting on our behalf or ourselves divulge or disclose or use any part of the Franchise Agreement without the written consent of M/s BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED.

We further declare and undertake that if we decide not to sign the above Agreement with M/s BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED, we shall return back the copy of the Agreement (in original) back to DDG (New Services) acting on behalf of M/s BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED within one month without preserving any copy of the same, in any form, whatsoever.

We further declare and undertake to indemnify M/s BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED for any loss or damage(s) caused to it by virtue of any default from our side in compliance to the aforesaid conditions.

Signed on behalf of M/s ______________________by Mr. ___________________ (Name and Designation) authorized signatory

Document Ver 1.6�as modified on 23^rd May 2007