The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) plans to inform the Prime Minister’s Office that accepting the operators? stance on 3G roaming pacts could lead to cartelisation amongst the bidders in future auctions, thereby causing potential revenue loss to the government.
DoT has said that both the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Ministry of Law and Justice had endorsed the stance of its internal wings, which stated that the 3G roaming deals amongst operators violate mobile permits and were non-tenable on legal, economic and technical grounds.
Prior to this, the top officials of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) had written to Kapil Sibal, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, with regard to the ongoing roaming agreements issue.
The letter was penned by Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive officer, India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel; Himanshu Kapania, managing director, Idea Cellular; N. Srinath, managing director, TTSL and Marten Pieters, managing director, Vodafone Essar.
The letter stated, ?Bidding in the 3G auction took place on the clear understanding that such agreements are legal and permissible. Any determination that this might not be the case would fundamentally alter the legal and economic basis on which the business case for 3G bids was evaluated.?
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular had signed a pact to mutually provide 3G services on roaming. Calling these pacts unlawful was extraordinary and baseless, they said, adding this ?flood of confusion? was raising concerns.
?This has already generated a flow of questions from worried investors and has confused customers in whose interest we have undertaken the activity,? the companies said.
In the letter, the companies quoted DoT?s answer to the operators regarding roaming: ?The roaming policy is applicable to the licences and not to the specific spectrum bands. Hence, roaming will be permitted.?
