Bharti Airtel on Monday filed a plea with the Delhi High Court challenging an order to stop 3G services in circles where the telecom operator did not have spectrum.
The Department of Telecom had issued a show-cause notice on Friday giving the operator three days to shut down the service. 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 said 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.”
“The impugned decision will violate rights of the petitioner under Article 19 (1)(g) of the Constitution of India, the petitioner (Airtel) having successfully bid at the 3G spectrum auction and having made significant investments. This will also adversely affect level-playing field conditions.” Airtel said in its plea.