Vodafone seeks withdrawal of notices

GSM major Vodafone Essar has sought withdrawal of show-cause notices issued to the company by the Department of Telecommunications on various occasions, stating it has not breached any of the licence conditions.

According to sources close to the development, Vodafone Essar has sought for a "favourable review" of conditions regarding in-building coverage for which the company was issued a show-cause notice in June 2007.

The company, in a presentation made to the DoT, stated that the DoT had insisted upon 90 per cent in-building coverage with -75dbm level, a norm that was not prescribed.

Moreover, this is also impractical, especially in the 1,800 MHz band, the company said.

The DoT had not yet released the company's performance bank guarantees of around Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion), which were withheld for non-completion of rollout obligations.

Vodafone Essar has also sought withdrawal of show-cause notices for providing billing facility in Delhi to post-paid customers in 2005 (then Hutchison Essar) enabling them to use pre-paid services.

The company was also issued notice for the subscriber local dialing (optimal routing) service launched by the end of 2002 in Mumbai and Delhi. The DoT had called for terminating the service in June 2003 and it issued a show-cause notice in July 2005.

The GSM service provider was also issued show-cause notices for providing push-to-talk facility in the country, alleging that the services were not permitted in the country.

However, Vodafone said it had made representations to the telecom regulator Trai "which did not find that there was violation of licence".