Indian Networks to Be Served with Notices Over 3G Roaming Pacts

Published on: 2nd Jul 2012

­India's Department of Telecoms (DoT) is preparing to issue notices to three of the country's mobile networks accusing them of violating their 3G licenses when they allowed customers to roam between their networks.

The three networks, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea applied for 3G licenses, but were unable to secure nationwide coverage, and agreed to allow customers to roam in areas where each network lacked a license.

Although the networks claim they were told this was legal, last year the DoT complained saying that it breached their license conditions.

The networks face potential fines of 50 crore (US$8.9 million) per license circle affected.

Citing the show cause notice, the Economic Times said that the networks will also be accused of operating as if they were MVNOs in their roaming agreements. The country does not permit virtual networks.

Aircel and Tata Tele is also appealing against the 3G roaming ban, but does not appear to be part of the latest action by the DoT.

On the web: Economic Times

 

Tags: [3g license]  [India]