Yesterday (9-1-2012) arguments took place in the TD
SAT(Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) court between the DoT on one side and the
private telecom operators Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Tata Teleservices and Aircel
on the other side. The spokesman of the Congress party Sri Abhishek Manu
Singhvi, who is a senior lawyer,
appeared on behalf of Vodafone.
(The big leaders in Congress and BJP are the lawyers
for private telecom companies and for several other Corporate Companies. Sri
Kapil Sibal, the present telecom minister represented Nokia and Bharti . The
present Home Ministeer Sri P.Chidambaram represented Motorola and Hutch. Senior
BJP leader Sri Arun Jaitley who is the leader of the opposition in Rajyasabha,
served as lawyer for T-Mobile, Tata Teleservices, Lucent Technologies and
Sterling. The team Anna member Sri Santi Bhushan served for Essar Telecom etc.)
What is the matter on which on 9-1-2012 Sri Abhishek
Manu Singhvi argued in the TD SAT?
Airtel, Vodafone and Idea colluded at the time of
bidding for 3G spectrum and none of them secured 3G spectrum for all the 22
circles in the country and secured it for a few circles. But they have done it
in such a way that atleast one of them would secure the spectrum in each and
every circle of all the 22 circles (except Orissa). While they started 3G
services, they came to a mutual agreement called “intracircle roaming
agreement” so that all of them can provide 3G services in all the circles
except Orissa. By this agreement, the subscribers of a company among them which
is not having 3G services will get 3G services by roaming on the 3G net work of
the partner in the agreement which has 3G spectrum in that circle. For example
in Andhra Pradesh circle, Vodafone has no 3G spectrum, but it is still
providing 3G services since as per the said “intra circle roaming agreement”
with Idea, its subscribers will roam on the 3G net work of Idea to get 3G
services.
With these agreements, Airtel which has
3G spectrum for 13 circles is providing the services in 20 circles, Vodafone
which has 3G spectrum for 9 circles is providing the services in 20 circles and
Idea which has 3G spectrum for 11 circles is providing the services in 19
circles. If they paid for the 3G spectrum for all the circles where they are
providing 3G services, they have to pay another Rs 20,000 crore all together to
the Government.
The DoT issued notice to these 3
operators and also to Tata Teleservices and Aircel who signed similar intra
circle roaming agreements to terminate their intra circle roaming agreements
since they are against the licence conditions and against the conditions
mentioned in the Notice Inviting Applications for 3G auction, and hence
illegal.
Instead of terminating these illegal
agreements, these operators filed a case in the TD SAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement
and Appellate Tribunal) on the same date (24-12-2011) and got a stay.
The argument of the private operators is
that 3G services are not requiring a separate license and they can be provided
under the UAS (Universal Access Services License) which they already got and
intra circle roaming agreements are permitted as per the UAS conditions.It is
to be noted that the lawyer for Vodafone which is one of these private operators is Sri Abhishek manu
Singhvi, the spokesman of Congress
The DoT is arguing that the contention
of these operators is not correct since the telecom companies need a separate
licence for offering 3G services because a clause was inserted in the licence
conditions of the operators who got 3G spectrum to this extent. DoT says 2G
service provider can enter into a intra circle roaming agreement for 2G roaming
only and not for 3G roaming.
News appeared in the papers on 9-1-2012
that if the intra circle roaming agreements of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea etc
are allowed by TDSAT finally (the hearing in TD SAT will be there again on
17-1-2012), the number of operators providing 3G services will increase to 10
from the present 7 and it will lead to such a situation that the operators who
are not having 3G spectrum even for a
single circle will be allowed to provide 3G services in all the circles by
making agreements with other operators having 3G spectrum, for intra circle
roaming. In such case, what is the meaning of 3G spectrum auction and why
should BSNL and MTNL pay such large amount of Rs 16750 crore (BSNL Rs 10186 cr
and MTNL Rs 6564 cr) for the 3G spectrum?
It is therefore clear that the arguments
of the private operators in support of their intra circle roaming agreements
are nothing but gimmicks (3G gimmicks) and hence will not succeed in the court.
What ever may be the terminologies and
meanings of these license conditions and agreements, the fact remains that BSNL
paid to the Government a sum of Rs 10186 crores for the 3G spectrum in all the
20 circles in India other than Delhi and Mumbai and in Delhi and Mumbai MTNL
paid Rs 6564 crores and hence they have paid for all the circles and providing
services in all the circles, whereas the private operators are providing the
services in all the circles, but paid for the spectrum only for some circles.
Irrespective of the outcome of the case
in the tribunal, the PSU operators BSNL and MTNL should not be discriminated in
this regard.
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