State-owned Power Grid Corporation has been granted unified licence with national long-distance and internet service provider authorisation to provide telecom services.

The power transmission utility provides telecom towers and optical-fibre cable infrastructure (for internet services) to service providers and other firms for commercial use. This is a separate segment of revenue for the company.

“The Department of Telecommunication has granted a unified licence to PowerGrid with national long-distance (NLD) and internet service provider-Category A service authorisation for providing telecom services. The licence is valid for 20 years,” PowerGrid said in a BSE filing today.

A senior official said PowerGrid has been proving B2B services in the telecom-infrastructure business.

Earlier, the company had two separate licences of infrastructure provider and national long-distance, which are due to expire. Now, the company has got a single unified licence.

The official said the company has also built its optical-fibre network through overhead cables using its vast network of power-transmission infrastructure across the country.

During April-December of 2016-17, the company had received an income of ₹371 crore from the telecom segment, 29 per cent higher than the year-ago period.