Supreme Court Issues Notices to Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Over 3G Roaming Pact

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the Centre's plea challenging TDSAT's judgement that allowed 3G intra-circle roaming and issued notices to Airtel, Idea and Vodafone which were allowed to offer 3G services in areas where not all of them own 3G spectrum.

A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar sought a response on the appeal filed by Department of Telecom (DoT) challenging the Tribunal's judgement.

Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal had overturned a government ban on the three carriers offering 3G mobile services beyond their licensed zones through roaming pacts, saying that it was in national interest to allow better utilisation of scarce radio frequency.

The judgement had brought relief to Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular which faced a penalty of Rs. 1,200 crores for entering into pacts with each other to offer 3G services in regions where they did not win spectrum in the 2010 auction.

Airtel had won 3G spectrum in 13 out of 22 telecom service areas for Rs. 12,295.46 crores; Vodafone in 9 for Rs. 11,617.86 crores, and Idea Cellular in 11 circles for Rs. 5,768.59 crores.

DoT had issued notices to Airtel, Vodafone and Idea on December 23, 2011 asking them to stop 3G ICR within 24 hours but the order was challenged by them.