M A I N   N E W S

Tribunal raps Telecom Department
Roaming services by WLL operators
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 27
The slugfest between cellular and WLL operators was thrown back to the government’s court with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Apellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today stating that it was the responsibility of the Department of Telecom (DoT) to decide on the matter on grounds of being the licensing authority.

Ridiculing the government for its inaction to stop WLL operators from providing roaming services, the TDSAT said “this is an unsatisfactory situation”.

“We would like the Union of India to go carefully into the issue of technology to ensure that neutrality of technology is not used as a subterfuge for poaching on each other’s license territory,” it said.

In the majority judgement passed by TDSAT members R.U.S. Prasad and P.R. Dasgupta, the appellate authority said it was for the licensor (DoT) to ensure that the distinction between cellular and WLL services were maintained as the license agreement was essentially service specific.

It also asked the government to set up an independent task force with experts drawn from various institutions such as the IIT, CSIR and TRAI.

“The government may also consider setting up a task force consisting of independent technical experts regarding modalities for restricting limited mobility to the local call area on WLL platform and enforcing all other parameters laid down by the licensor in its earlier guidelines,” it said.

The task force could submit its report within two months.

Justice Wadhwa came down heavily on the DoT for its inaction and said it could be indicative of the government agency being influenced by some pressure group. “It appears that the DoT was under some pressure group which tied its hands from taking any action. We are unable to find any other explanation,” he said.

He said while Tata Teleservices had said it was not offering multiple registration, no such statement was forthcoming from Reliance Infocomm and other fixed operators.

Meanwhile, Association of Basic Telecom Operators chief S.C. Khanna said judgement of the TDSAT was reflective of the fact that the advent of technology could not be stopped. He projected that the subscriber base of WLL would increase to 50 million in the near future from its present base of five million. He said WLL service providers would continue to provide call forwarding facilities through mobile switching centres.

Basic service operators’ counsel said the WLL users would continue to use the call forwarding facility and the picture would be clear when the report was submitted.