In a breather to Bharti Airtel, the Delhi High Court has told the Department of Telecom not to take any coercive action against the operator for 60 days on the order to stop 3G services in circles where the operator did not have spectrum.
The court has told the operator to respond to the DoT show-cause notice over the next two months.
The DoT had issued a show-cause notice on Friday giving the operator three days to shut down the service. On Monday, Airtel moved the High Court.
Will help others
The court’s decision will also help other 3G operators, including Vodafone and Idea Cellular, that were also charged with violating the 3G operating rules by the DoT.
While mobile licences allow operators to enter into roaming agreements, in the case of 3G, service operators have gone a step ahead and are selling connections even in areas where they do not have spectrum. Earlier, roaming agreements for 2G services were primarily done to cater to subscribers who travel from one circle to another.
But 3G services operators have got into an agreement, whereby connections are being sold in the same circle. For example, in Madhya Pradesh both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone do not have 3G spectrum but they have 36,490 and 1,558 subscribers, respectively, according to the DoT. This has been made possible because the two operators have entered into an agreement with Idea Cellular.
The DoT is also issuing notices to other players, including Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
In its petition, Bharti Airtel had said that the “decision of DoT is against the public interest as it adversely affects the interest of the customers and the subscribers who are benefiting from the 3G arrangements.”
Implications
While most operators have stopped selling 3G connections under the roaming pacts, this has long-term implications for the operators’ revenues.
Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular had bid for 3G spectrum with the understanding that such roaming pacts will be allowed. The operators had entered into such an agreement because neither of them had won pan-India spectrum. The arrangement is crucial considering the impending launch of broadband services by Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Infotel.
Reliance Infotel is the only player with pan-India broadband spectrum. If the DoT insists on shutting down the roaming pacts, 3G operators, including Airtel, Vodafone and Idea cellular, will be left offering services in a few circles.