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NEW DELHI, Dec. 17

THE Supreme Court has directed the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to take a fresh look at its decision to allow limited mobility services based on wireless in local loop (WLL), especially in terms of providing the cellular operators a level-playing field even while refusing to stay the rollout of these services.

Delivering its final order on the petition filed by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) against an earlier TDSAT ruling which had given a green signal to the move, the three judge Bench of the Chief Justice, Mr G.B. Pattanaik, Mr Justice H.K. Sema and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha, stated that the matter would have to be considered afresh keeping in mind the grievances on the absence of level-playing field between cellular and basic operators.

The Court, however, refused to stay the rollout of these services by the basic operators stating that it would be against customer interests.

This is expected to more or less take care of the objections raised by the cellular operators who have been seeking licence fee parity with basic operators. At the same time, the Court has accepted the concept of "limited mobility services" being in the interest of the customer.

"We do not accept the contention of the cellular operators to restrain fixed service providers from taking new subscribers on WLL as it will be detrimental to the consumers' interest," the Bench said. It, however, noted that the issue of allowing basic service providers to provide limited mobility WLL services would be subject to the final outcome of the verdict of the TDSAT.

The TDSAT, it noted, had committed an error by saying that it had only supervisory jurisdiction and decided the important issue in a bald manner without going into the intricacies of the dispute.

Holding that the tribunal had got wide powers and jurisdiction, Mr Justice Pattanaik said the earlier order was vitiated by non-consideration of material, especially the contention of the cellular operators that they did not have level-playing field. The bald conclusion of the tribunal that the cellular operators had been adequately compensated through different schemes could not be held to be a proper conclusion, the Court said.

Discussing the need for the telecom tribunal, the Court said it was necessitated to bar the jurisdiction of the civil courts from entertaining disputes relating to telecom.

"It has wide powers and there is no provision to limit TDSAT's jurisdiction to hear disputes between licencee, licensor and the service providers," Mr Justice Pattanaik said

This order by the Court more or less clears the uncertainty over the limited mobility services on offer by Reliance Communications, Tata TeleServices Ltd (TTSL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).

As long as the cellular operators are provided level playing field, they should have no objection to the launch of these services by these basic operators.

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