Saturday 21 December 2013

TDSAT reserves verdict on 3G roaming issue

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) reserved its verdict on 20 December the 3G intra-circle roaming issue while simultaneously directing that till the time it gives its judgment, the earlier order of the apex court barring Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular from adding new subscribers in circles where the firms do not have the required spectrum, shall continue.
The Supreme Court had remanded Airtel's plea on the 3G ICR matter back to the telecom tribunal and had directed it to decide the matter before the end of December. The apex court had, on April 11, also restrained the three telecom majors from increasing their subscriber base through the tripartite agreements between them.

The judgement, on the much-disputed matter between the Department of Telecommunications and telecom operators, will determine if the mutual agreements entered into amongst Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular to provide 3G facilities to subscribers outside their licensed telecom zones, are valid or not.
In April this year, the DoT had slapped penalties amounting to Rs350 crore, Rs550 crore and Rs300 crore on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular respectively. Subsequently, the companies had moved the Delhi HC and a single-judge bench had restrained the DoT from taking any coercive measures against them. However, Reliance Communications, in an appeal against the order of the single judge, had moved a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court, which restrained the telecom majors from offering 3G services through intra-circle roaming (ICR) pacts.
Subsequently, on an appeal lodged by Airtel, the Supreme Court had barred the companies from adding any new subscribers in circles where they had not won any spectrum in the 2010 auctions, but had permitted them to offer 3G facility to existing consumers via the ICR pacts.

Source:
http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/3879-tdsat-reserves-verdict-on-3g-roaming-issue.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/3879-tdsat-reserves-verdict-on-3g-roaming-issue.html

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