Soon after Reliance 3G announced partnership with Aircel and TTSL for pan-India 3G roaming, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) ruled in favour of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
Almost a year back, the Department of Telecom had issued show cause notice to Bharti Airtel asking it to stop 3G services in 7 circles as it was offered by mutual agreement with Vodafone and Idea and was apparently illegal and violated the norms. However, the TDSAT specifically said that 3G intra-circle-roaming (ICR) does not violate the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) license.
The DoT similarly asked Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to stop 3G services outside their licensed zones. As a violation to the regulation, Vodafone was penalised Rs. 550 crore and Airtel and Idea were slapped with penalties of Rs. 350 crore and Rs. 300 crore respectively. The tribunal has set aside these penalties as well.
