It seems as if the Indian telecom sector has been plagued with multiple scams that are springing up with each passing day.
Now, Bharti Airtel has approached the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, seeking a stay on the payment of the $10 million fine it was slapped with for illegally tampering with Calling Line Identification data.
The country’s largest telecom player, which was embroiled in the issue of illegal provisioning of 3G services in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, was slapped with the fine by the Department of Telecom for tampering with the CLI mechanism, which is in violation of Clause 41.19 (iv) under the universal service access license norms.
The clause states that any telecom operator is forbidden from tampering with the CLI mechanism as it is related to the security of the users. The Telecom Enforcement Resources & Monitoring Cel cell for the Madhya Pradesh circle had demanded call data records for three days (Jan. 16-18, 2011) after the tampering was reported in that circle.
The DoT, while issuing a demand notice to the company, had asked it to pay $10 million by Oct. 20. But the company received relief after TDSAT issued a reserve order, thereby relieving the company from paying the fine by that date. The tribunal will look into the issue and decide the payment of the fine.
Airtel has denied the allegations of tampering with the CLI data, noting:
- There was no alleged camouflaging of the caller’s identity and the invalid Calling Line Identification (CLI) was generated due to a technical error and that no deliberate or malafide intentions exist on the part of the service provider.
- The incident does not involve any instance of saving on any Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) pay out.
- Immediate corrective action was taken by Bharti on this count.
