The Telecom Department’s decision to impose a Rs 650-crore penalty on Airtel for alleged licence violation seems to be much higher than what was recommended by an internal committee.

According to a report submitted by a committee within the Department of Telecom in 2009, the total penalty on Airtel should have been Rs 12 crore.

According to the report, seen by Business Line , the Committee was also apprised of that fact that Bharti had requested for a personal hearing after issuance of directions for stopping this service. But no personal hearing was granted to the company. While the committee concluded that the service launched by Airtel was beyond the scope of the licence, it added that the services were not launched with dishonest intentions. The case dates back to 2002-05 when Airtel was found to be offering its customers a service called Subscriber Local Dialling. Under this service, a subscriber would be able to get all calls as a local call while roaming.

For example, if a Delhi subscriber travels to Mumbai, he would be able to get incoming calls from Mumbai contacts as a local call.

According to the DoT, such a call should have been routed to Delhi first on the national long distance network and then brought back to Mumbai. By routing the call in Mumbai itself, Airtel has bypassed the long-distance network which is against the licence conditions.

Though the committee report suggested a lower penalty, the DoT has imposed Rs 650 crore on Airtel for the alleged violation.

> thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in

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