Saturday, March 16, 2013

Airtel ordered to stop 3G roaming services outside licensed zones

Bharti Airtel has also been asked to pay a penalty of Rs.350 crore by the department of telecommunications
 
 
Bharti is likely to approach the Delhi high court for a stay on the notices. Friday’s notice is the second to be sent to Bharti. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint
 
 

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel Ltd has received notices from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ordering the company to stop offering 3G roaming in seven circles where the operator doesn’t have spectrum.
The operator has been given time till 3pm on Monday to respond to the notice that also asks for a penalty of Rs.350 crore from the operator—Rs.50 crore for every circle where the telco has ostensibly violated telecom licence conditions, DoT officials said.
DoT is expected to send a similar notice to Vodafone India Ltd next week.
Bharti is likely to approach the Delhi high court for a stay on the notices. Friday’s notice is the second to be sent to Bharti.
Last week, DoT made a case for sending the notices on the grounds that the operators were selling new 3G connections in circles where they did not get spectrum in the 2010 auction. This was not allowed as their telecom licences in those circles were not modified to allow them to offer the high-speed wireless data services. The licences were specifically amended for circles where they won 3G spectrum in 2010.
In July 2011, Bharti, Vodafone and Idea Cellular Ltd announced that they had signed intra-circle roaming pacts that would allow them to offer 3G services across the country, despite not having won the necessary spectrum in all the circles.
DoT had asked the telcos to terminate the roaming pacts towards the end of 2011. The telcos approached the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) over this. The two-member bench gave a split verdict in 2011.
In the 2010 auction, Bharti, Vodafone and Idea won 3G spectrum in 13, nine and 11 circles, respectively.
Communications minister Kapil Sibal has publicly dismissed the telcos’ stand that prior to the 3G auctions, DoT had clearly specified that “roaming policy is applicable to licences and not specific to spectrum bands”. The minister has said the operators can offer roaming services to subscribers from circles where they have 3G spectrum when they travel to other areas. But the telcos cannot acquire 3G customers in circles where they did not win spectrum.
Idea is already fighting DoT in court on the inclusion of the clause in its new licences for circles it won in a November 2012 auction. This stipulates that the operator cannot offer 3G services in circles where it does not have the necessary spectrum, something the telco has termed as an arbitrary decision by the government to include in the licence conditions.
Idea won spectrum in six circles in the November auction, after having lost its licences there due to a February 2012 Supreme Court order. Only Videocon has been given telecom licences for the spectrum it won in the November auction.
Bharti,declined to comment.
Bharti fell 1.25% to Rs.311.05 on BSE Friday and Idea Cellular fell 1.7% to Rs.112.15. The benchmark Sensex dropped 0.73% to 19,427.56 points.
 
Avinash kumar
PGDM 2nd sem.
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