SC gives 2-week breather to Tata Tele

The Supreme Court on Monday asked Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd not to discontinue the interconnectivity of Tata Teleservices Ltd for two weeks. This is because the court will take up Tata Tele's appeal, which has been marketing 'Walky' on a big scale.

It also barred BSNL from encashing bank guarantees given to it by the two Tata companies in the dispute over Walky's interconnectivity charges.

The bench consisting of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Arun Kumar also asked Tata companies to pay Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) each to BSNL, pending the decision of the Court.

The Court also issued notice to BSNL, as Tata's have appealed against the TDSAT order asking the company to pay an estimated Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.5 billion) to BSNL on account of access deficit charge.

BSNL told the court that it has already withdrawn its directive to its field units to take strict action to recover usage charges for all calls made from Walky limited mobile services.

BSNL's directive had said if dues were not recovered, field units would be responsible. When Tata Tele counsel protested against this, BSNL informed the Court that the directive had already been withdrawn.

Counsel for Tata Tele Arun Jaitley submitted that the company has withdrawn the advertisement for Walky, which was objected to by BSNL. But, he contended that both BSNL and MTNL are continuing with similar advertisements. He said the companies were competitors.

If Tata Tele was prevented from using such ads and the dues were recovered from it, it would subsidise services of BSNL and MTNL, and there would be no level-playing field, he added.

The court's decision will have a far-reaching impact in the ongoing dispute over ADC, which involves DoT, BSNL, TRAI, and private operators like Tata Tele and Reliance Infocomm.

TDSAT had classified Tata Tele's fixed wireless phone service 'Walky' as limited mobile. As a result, it would have to pay ADC. The tariff would have gone up from Rs 1.20 for a three-minute call to Rs 2.10.

This was because the company had became liable to pay ADC to BSNL, according to the interconnect order of the telecom regulatory authority of India.