Telecom tribunal sets aside penalties on new telecom operators

The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has set aside penalties imposed by the Department of Telecom on new mobile phone operators for failure to meet 2G roll-out obligations.

The TDSAT bench headed by Justice S B Sinha said DoT did not give any opportunity to the telecom operators before imposing the penalty or liquidated damages, thereby denying the operators "natural justice."

The tribunal has also ordered DoT to refund the money collected so far with 12 per cent interest, within four weeks.

DoT is estimated to have collected over Rs300 crore from various telecom operators, including Etisalat DB, Loop, Videocon and Uninor, who were awarded spectrum licence in 2008, but did not roll out services as stipulated in the licence conditions.

TDSAT also directed DoT to give a fresh hearing to the operators before deciding on the issue. The tribunal also said the benefit of any possible ambiguity in the terms of licence should go to the licensees.

These operators had received spectrum for telecom services in 2008, during the tenure of jailed former telecom minister A Raja, but have not yet started offering full-fledged services because of delay in raising necessary infrastructure.