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In a breather to Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Tuesday stayed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) latest order related to revised ‘significant market power’ definition and reporting requirement on segmented offers.
TRAI in February had said that operators with significant market power (SMP) cannot offer below cost tariffs even as it changed the definition of what constitutes SMP.
TRAI order of February had changed the definition of SMP. According to its earlier definition of SMP, a player was considered dominant if it crossed 30 per cent threshold by number of subscribers, revenue market share, volume of traffic and network capacity in any circle. But it was changed to only ‘…30 per cent threshold by subscriber or revenue market share in any circle’.
A segmented offer is a tariff which contains special offers that include discounts/ concessions, which operators provide to retain customers, generally who are high ARPU customers.
“The clauses in the impugned order related to the reporting requirement and definition of significant market power are stayed. However, respondent will be entitled to ask for details of segmented discounts/ concessions for analysis but no penalty shall be imposed on that basis until further orders in these pending appeals,” the TDSAT order seen by BusinessLine said.
The Tribunal in the order said the companies need not disclose names of any customer and if there is any other sensitive information which they feel would affect their business interests, they would be at liberty to withhold such information but, offer a written explanation for such withholding to TRAI.
“If the respondent (TRAI) feels that relevant and necessary information is being withheld without just and good reasons, the matter may be bought to the notice of the Tribunal for appropriate directions,” the order added.
TRAI in February had announced that the amendments made to Telecommunications Tariff Order (TTO), stipulates that no operator shall in any manner discriminate between subscribers of the same class and such classification of the subscribers shall not be arbitrary. It had also defined predatory pricing and had amended the definition of ascertaining an SMP.
Predatory pricing
However, Airtel and Idea Cellular had moved the TDSAT alleging that TRAI’s latest regulations on predatory pricing have ‘significant implications’ for the sector and will also impact customer interest.
The TDSAT, on March 5, had heard the appeals of both the companies, but did not grant a stay on the amendments to the TTO, as urged by the operators. However, it had directed TRAI to file its response within four weeks, after which the two operators were provided three weeks to respond to the TRAI’s response.
On April 17, the Tribunal had reserved its interim order on the petitions filed by Airtel and Idea Cellular, when both the companies got a small window of relief, as they did not have to comply with TRAI’s direction on reporting segmented offers.
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