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DoT stops 3G services under roaming pacts

23 Dec 2011 Evaluate

In a setback to Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has ordered them to immediately stop 3G services in telecom circles where they don’t have spectrum. The three operators have roaming pacts and offer pan-India 3G mobile services without having spectrum in several circles. The clearance to take action on the issue came late last night from communications minister Kapil Sibal. A letter to the operators expected to be dispatched this evening will make it clear 3G services provided through roaming agreements are not legally tenable. The decision came after the law ministry, telecom regulator Trai and an internal unit of DoT echoed the view such agreements violated licence conditions.

Under the rules, an operator can be fined Rs 50 crore per circle at the most for any violation of licence conditions. The licence can be withdrawn in extreme cases. However, for that, the DoT has to issue a show-cause notice to the errant operator and provide 60 days to reply before any action. DoT made it clear it was yet to decide what action would be taken for violation of licence conditions. Reliance Communications which is also into 3G, has preferred not to roll out services through roaming. Aircel, which had a one-way roaming pact with Tata Teleservices, had to stop services in nine circles after the Tata company decided to switch off the network when the dispute on the issue came under scrutiny. Experts say there are nearly 15 million 3G customers in the country, of which only 25 per cent are active customers. The total number of customers who will get impacted would be very limited. The final decision on the legality of the issue could also determine the ground rules of the next big battle in telecom: in broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G, which offer much higher data speeds than 3G. With Bharti having BWA spectrum in only four circles, Aircel in eight and Vodafone in none, roaming agreements would have provided these players an opportunity to become pan-India 4G players.SBI.

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