The Hindu : Business : Bharti moves Tribunal; Reliance Info denies allegations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

Business

Business

Bharti moves Tribunal; Reliance Info denies allegations

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 8. It was a day of disputes in the telecom sector. While the Bharti Group on Tuesday dragged the Government to the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) seeking refund of the Rs. 135-crore entry fee paid earlier for acquiring basic licences as the company has since migrated to the Unified Access Service (UAS) licence regime, Reliance Infocomm defended its action on the alleged "illegal" routing of international long distance (ILD) calls as local ones and refused the pay the penalty imposed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

In yet another case, the Internet service providers (ISPs) approached TDSAT challenging the DoT's decision to impose an entry fee on them for offering Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. The Tribunal has given the DoT two days to reply to the petition filed by Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) and the matter is to be taken up for hearing on February 11.

For DoT, the Bharti case is one of major concern as it is feared that other service providers might also follow suit and seek refund of fees in case the private operator's plea is upheld. Not to be taken unawares, the Department, while clarifying that the entry fee was "non-refundable," has alerted its legal division and has sought approval of empanelment of three senior advocates.

Bharti officials, confirming that the company had approached the TDSAT, said: "Because of regulatory changes, our basic telecom licences have become redundant and, therefore, we are seeking refund of the entry fee paid by the company."

On the contrary, a DoT communiqué said: "The Government has already taken a decision that since the entry fee was non-refundable, there is no case for any refund of entry fee as well as any compensation for change of policy which is a prerogative of the Government."

In the Reliance Infocomm case, the private operator pooh-poohed the Government's concerns over security with regard to the "improper" Caller Line Identification (CLI) and noted that over 40 per cent of ILD calls do not have the correct CLI. In view of this, Reliance's counsel, Harish Salve, told the Tribunal that the Government's claims of licence violation were baseless. Mr. Salve argued that it was the Government that had told operators to put their own switch numbers in case ISD calls came in without the CLI.

In the ISPAI case, the counsel for the operators noted that the amendment to the terms and conditions of the ISP licence should be based on the provisions of the TRAI Act. Under the Act, the Government has to seek the recommendations of the telecom regulator in this regard.

On January 16, the DoT had sent a notice with a 30-day ultimatum to all ISPs directing them to either pay up the entry fee varying from Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 10 crores or else, stop offering VPN services.

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