The Department of Telecom will summon Tata Teleservices and Aircel to explain why action should not be taken against them for offering 3G services in areas they did not have spectrum.

The two operators had entered into a roaming agreement to ride on each others spectrum just like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular had.

However in the case of Tata Tele and Aircel, the agreement remained only on paper as by the time they came to executing the plan, the DoT had already raised the red flag on the other three operators. Tata Tele has written to the department saying that it should not be penalised because the roaming deal was not activated.

But a top DoT official said that two operators will be called for a hearing before taking any further action.

Penalty slapped

In the case of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea cellular, the DoT has already slapped penalty for alleged violation of licence conditions.

While mobile licences allow operators to enter into roaming agreements, in the case of 3G, the operators have gone a step ahead and are selling connections even in areas where they do not have spectrum.

This has been made possible because the operators entered into an agreement wherein an operator that does not have 3G spectrum in a region offers services riding on another player’s spectrum. For example, in Madhya Pradesh, neither Bharti Airtel and Vodafone has 3G spectrum, but they offer services on Idea Cellular’s spectrum.

According to the DoT, this has created two different sets of violators — operators that sought others’ spectrum and another set of companies that acted as givers.

>thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in

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