The Delhi High Court has asked the Department of Telecom to file its reply to a petition challenging the 3G roaming services being offered by Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India. A section of BSNL's union filed a writ petition alleging that the 3G roaming agreement between the three operators is tantamount to cartelisation. The Sanchar Nigam Executive Association has told the court that the 3G roaming agreement distorted competition in the telecommunications sector at direct cost to other telecommunication companies such as BSNL.
“The petitioner is challenging, through this petition, the illegal actions of respondent Nos. 3 to 12 (the three private operators) in providing 3G services in the circles where they have not been granted license. Respondent Nos. 3 to 12 are using each others' spectrum allocation to provide their services on 3G band in the geographical regions that do not belong to them and respondent Nos. 1-2 (DoT and Trai), who are responsible for checking such practices, are acting as silent spectators despite this serious scam being brought to their notice and the nation is suffering huge loss running into crores of rupees,” the petition said.
The three private players have entered into an agreement whereby they are offering 3G services in circles where they do not have spectrum. The current licence rules permit operators to go in for roaming agreements to allow users to get seamless coverage as they move from one circle to another. But in the case of 3G services, operators are selling connections even where they do not have spectrum.
The Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cell of the DoT had earlier said that action must be taken against operators who have entered into such roaming deals, whereby a mobile operator without 3G spectrum is able to offer services. The Wireless Planning & Coordination wing, which is responsible for spectrum management, also termed the so-called roaming arrangement as illegal. TRAI, in its report on the issue, said such an arrangement was not only causing loss to the national exchequer but also affecting the quality of 3G services offered to consumers.
The operators on their part have been saying that the agreement was legal and was done after clarifications from DoT.