The Hindu Business Line : TDSAT quashes paging operators' plea for relief package

IT'S curtains for the ailing paging industry with the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) quashing the appeal seeking relief measures from the Government.

The telecom tribunal has said that there was no merit in the paging operators' demands since advancement in technology has to continue in the interest of the consumers.

The paging operators had filed an appeal with the TDSAT seeking relief in licence fee payable and compensation from the Government for monetary loss faced by the service players due to "unfair" policy.

They had also sought a direction to waive fixed licence fee with retrospective effect and refund of the fee paid so far.

They wanted a direction to the TRAI to examine the grievance and economic structure of the paging industry and recommend suitable relief measures.

The paging subscriber base has been dwindling from over seven lakh users in 1998 to just a few thousand now.

Most of the paging operators have already shut shop and diversified into the BPO sector.

One of the main complaints of the operators was that while cellular operators were offering short messaging service free of cost, the Government was charging a licence fee from paging companies for offering text-based service.

The Government, on its part, had maintained that it had given sufficient relief to the paging operators already.

Responding to the demands, TDSAT said that since the radio paging operators did not accept the initial offer of migration, "we fail to understand as to how at this stage we can consider their migration from the initial date itself. The basic requirement for migration to the revenue sharing regime is acceptance of the offer by the licensor to the licensee, which the city paging operators did not accept without any condition. The prayer, therefore, cannot be granted."

The order was given last week.

On the issue of level playing field with cellular operators, the tribunal said, "The advancement in technology has to continue and the services have to be upgraded in the interest of the consumer at large and overall development of the country. We possibly cannot stick to one particular technology, which is a ground reality today. The licences for paging services and cellular mobile services were issued at the same time by the Government and, therefore, the paging industry has no reason to contend that their fall is attributable to the introduction of cellular mobile services."

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