Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Bharti Airtel, a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa has got some relief for offering 3G services, as Supreme Court has told the Department of Telecom (DOT) not to take coercive action till the next hearing on April 11. The entity had filed a plea against telecom department’s order asking the company to stop providing 3G services in seven circles where it did not have spectrum.

Other than this, department had also imposed a penalty of Rs 350 crore on Bharti Airtel for alleged violation of license terms. Airtel had partnered with Idea Cellular and Vodafone, by signing an intra-circle roaming agreement to offer 3G services across the country using one another’s spectrum. This was because none of these players had won pan-India spectrum individually. As per DoT, though roaming is permitted, such an intra-circle arrangement cannot be used to sell 3G connections in areas where the operators do not have spectrum.