Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has charged Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular with forming a cartel to offer 3G services illegally in areas where they did not have spectrum.
Opposing the agreements among the three operators, the state-run telecom company said the private players have caused huge loss to the exchequer.
Reliance Communications had earlier raised similar objections.
Attacking the pacts signed by the three private players, BSNL, in a petition filed with the Supreme Court, said: “Due to such arrangements, telecom service providers are being illegally benefited and the said practices are adversely affecting the business interest of BSNL.”
The Supreme Court is hearing the case after Airtel challenged an order by the Department of Telecom to shut down 3G services where the operator did not have spectrum. The court has asked the DoT not to take any coercive action till the case is heard, even as it asked Airtel to stop taking on new subscribers in seven circles.
In its plea Airtel had said that the intra-circle roaming agreements were legal under the licence conditions and that any disruption could impact nearly 20 million subscribers.
“DoT had unequivocally clarified that the 3G intra-circle roaming is permitted. It was on the basis of this representation of the DoT that the operators invested huge amounts,” Airtel said.
In response, BSNL has said that it paid Rs 10,186 crore to buy 3G spectrum in 20 circles, but the three private operators are able to offer pan-India services without bidding for air waves in the auction.
“The cartelisation by the petitioner (Airtel) with law-violating telecom service providers has clearly robbed the DoT of the benefit of higher auction fees,” BSNL said.
While mobile licences allow operators to enter into roaming agreements, in the case of 3G, operators have gone a step ahead and are selling connections even in areas where they do not have spectrum.