The Government of India has come up with one license for all telecom related services, known as a Unified License. Under unified license, the license holder can apply for authorization of different services & service areas. To become an ISP, one must either acquire a Unified License under which he will obtain ISP Authorization for providing ISP services or VNO Authorization. To know the difference between the two, click here.

One company can hold only one Unified License, but can apply for ISP / VNO authorization of multiple services and/or service areas. However, the tenure of such authorizations will run concurrently with the tenure of the Unified License, which means that all authorizations will be valid only till the validity of the unified license.

In India, there are 3 categories of VNO license authorizations under the Unified License to become an internet service provider, depending upon scale or the City/State/Town/District/Village you want to start your ISP business in.

The 3 categories are differentiated by the scale of the territory/coverage area of the VNO license i.e. whether the License is for (i) national area, (ii) major states / metro cities or (iii) other smaller  cities, towns, villages and districts.