NEW DELHI, India—Indian cellular operators suffered a severe blow over the weekend when the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) finally dismissed their petition challenging the government’s decision to allow fixed service providers to offer limited mobility wireless local loop (WLL) services.
In its final order on the year-old case, the tribunal said the contention of the Cellular Operators Association of India that the government had deviated from the New Telecom Policy (NTP) 1999 holds no ground.
“Unless it can be shown that the government has acted contrary to law or taken a decision, which amounts to infringement of a constitutional provision, we cannot direct the government to change its policy,” the tribunal stated.
The objective of NTP 1999 and the purpose behind switching from a duopoly to multiple operators are to encourage competition and to increase teledensity in the country. The service must be affordable for the common man, the court noted.
“The introduction of WLL by basic operators may cut into the profit margin of the petitioners, but that is no reason why the common man should be denied the facility of a cheap and mobile telephone service” the tribunal ruled.
The tribunal said the decision to allow limited mobility WLL services was taken after elaborate discussion and deliberation. Therefore, it said, the attempt by the petitioners to claim exclusivity in relation to available technology is invalid, and if accepted, will result in an overly rigid policy in a field where there is a constant flux of available technology.
