Vodafone Essar has defended its roaming agreements with other players to provide 3G mobile services in circles where it does not hold a licence, on grounds that this was as per conditions of the licence.
Prior to this, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had raised concerns over the 3G roaming pacts of companies, who do not hold 3G licences on pan-India basis. The pacts help them reduce cost.
In a written correspondence to DoT, Vodafone has said, “The UAS licence expressly allows operators to enter into roaming agreements with other licensees and to provide national and international roaming services to their customers.?
Further, the letter added, “Inter-circle was permitted by DoT through an amendment to the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) and the Cellular Mobile Telephone services (CMTS) licence on June 12, 2008. This amendment thus is a part of the UASL/CMTS licence terms and permits operators to enter into mutual commercial agreements of intra-service areas roaming facilities, with other service providers.”
The letter also said that the operators had specifically asked DoT whether intra-circle roaming for providing services to customers would also be applicable for 3G in case some operators are not able to acquire spectrum in all circles. Also, in response to Vodafone?s query, DoT had stated that the roaming policy was applicable to the licences and not to specific spectrum bands. Hence roaming will be permitted.
In July 2011, with the aim of reducing cost and offering pan-India 3G services, Vodafone Essar, Bharti airtel and Idea Cellular had inked a bilateral roaming agreement, both inter and intra circle.
airtel, Aircel and Reliance Communications each holds 3G spectrum licences in 13 of the 22 telecom circles, while Vodafone has licences in 10 circles and Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices limited hold licences in nine circles each.
