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WLL-M cos. go on the offensive

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 14. The phone war between cellular and limited mobility (WLL-M) companies has seen a reversal of roles with the latter filing a petition before the Supreme Court. So far, cellular companies had filed most of the cases before the telecom dispute tribunal and other courts but this is a rare occasion when WLL (M) companies have gone on the offensive and posed as the aggrieved party.

The main reason for the petition filed by these companies is to avoid paying additional entry fees. This course was suggested by the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to correct distortions. The tribunal had asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to determine the quantum of additional entry fees that should be paid by WLL (M) companies

But basic phone companies are now claiming that the level playing field was already tilted against them and it would be a travesty if the TRAI were to contemplate any further commercial realignment that would result in imposition of any additional entry fee.

The basic phone companies have asked the Supreme Court to intervene because, in their perception, the TRAI feels it is obliged to impose an additional entry fee on them as it is bound by the tribunal directive requiring it to levy an additional entry fee on a value added/supplementary service.

"The TRAI observed publicly that it felt constrained by the directions contained in the judgment and was precluded from appreciating facts in relation to each of the factors that it had itself enumerated in the consultation papers,'' feel their officials. heir industry association, the Association of Basic Telephone Operators (ABTO), says that there was no justification for imposing additional entry fee because similar supplementary services by cellular operators such as SMS, Data Services, e-mail, Internet, Internet telephony and PCO had "not been charged a penny.''

It further contends that entry fee is levied to ensure that only serious parties enter any area and not to create entry barriers and wonders how levy of entry fee would benefit cellular companies.

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