DoT to drop fine on 2G firms for shutting service without notice

The Department of Telecom is likely to drop plans to impose a penalty on some of the 2G players for shutting down services without notice.

The follows an opinion given by the legal advisors that 2G operators whose licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court cannot be blamed for closing services after the deadline set by the apex court.

Earlier, the DoT was looking to impose penalty of Rs 250 crore on STel and Rs 700 crore on Loop Telecom. According to the DoT, both these players had shut down services without giving notice.

The 2G companies had contested the DoT plan on grounds that they had informed subscribers about shutting down network.

“We have not violated any licence conditions. We had informed our subscribers about shutting down our network. Once the Supreme Court cancelled our licences then legally our operations ceased to exist,” said one of the 2G players, which had closed services last year itself.

Nearly 70 million mobile users have had to shift their operator after the 2G companies, given licences in 2008, were ordered to shut down their network by the apex court.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/3370-dot-to-drop-fine-on-2g-firms-for-shutting-service-without-notice.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/3370-dot-to-drop-fine-on-2g-firms-for-shutting-service-without-notice.html