The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has given a stay order on the Department of Telecommunications? notice imposing a penalty of Rs 6.5 billion on Bharti Airtel.
The tribunal is scheduled to hear the matter next on August 21, 2013. Earlier, Bharti Airtel had approached TDSAT to seek relief from paying the penalty imposed by DoT for the alleged violation of licence norms during 2002 and 2005.
According to DoT, the operator was found using a call routing system which led to monetary loss to the exchequer. At the time, the operator was offering the subscriber local dialing service. As part of the service, local call rates were applicable even while roaming. DoT has stated that such a call should have been routed to Delhi first on the national long distance network and then routed back to Mumbai.
However, by routing the call in Mumbai itself, Bharti Airtel bypassed the long distance network, which is against the prevailing licence conditions. By routing incoming calls as local, customers paid lower roaming charges. According to DoT, this caused revenue loss to the Government in the form of lower licence fee from long distance operations.
