The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed the execution of the Government order asking Bharti Airtel to stop 3G mobile services in areas where it did not have spectrum.
The court has fixed May 8 for the next hearing even as the Department of Telecom has been asked not to take any action till that date.
The DoT had on Friday sent a notice to Airtel asking it to stop 3G services in circles where it did not have spectrum within 72 hours. Bharti Airtel had challenged the DoT order in the court on grounds that the services were legal and permitted by the DoT before the auction for 3G spectrum began in 2010.
The Delhi High Court also said Airtel would not immediately need to pay the penalty. This is the second time the High Court has come to the operator’s rescue. Last year, Airtel had challenged a similar order from the DoT after which the court directed the department to take action only after hearing out the operator.
The DoT order has significant implications for Airtel as it will lose its pan-India 3G footprint at a time when arch-rival Reliance Jio Infocomm is gearing up to launch its data and voice services, based on 4G technology, across the country. Soon after the spectrum auctions finished in 2010, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular entered into an agreement to offer 3G services across the country.
The DoT is preparing separate notices for Vodafone and Idea Cellular in this regard and court’s final judgment will impact these players as well.
This was necessitated because none of these players had won pan-India spectrum individually. This deal that they struck is called an intra-circle roaming agreement.
Current licence rules
The current licence rules permit operators to go in for roaming agreements so that users 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. For example, in Madhya Pradesh neither Bharti Airtel nor Vodafone has 3G spectrum but both have subscribers. This has been made possible because the two operators have entered into an agreement with Idea Cellular.
However, the DoT has taken the view that this is not a roaming arrangement.