Admitting petition filed by RCom, which has a dispute with BSNL over payment of Rs 434.97 crore ADC, Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) directed the public sector firm not to disconnect any point of interconnection of the former till further orders.
"There would be no disconnection till the further order," said TDSAT Chairman Justice Arun Kumar while issuing the notice to BSNL.
During the proceedings before TDSAT, RCom alleged that on May 3, BSNL being a government body disconnected it in seven states by flaying interconnection regulations.
The Supreme Court had earlier held that BSNL's 1.6 million WLL phones were mobile phones and it could not levy ADC on RCom for calls originated from their network to the PSU's.
ADC is a levy paid by private telecom operators for meeting the cost of BSNL's unprofitable operations in rural areas.
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In the petition, RCom alleged that despite the apex court's instructions BSNL is not settling its ADC account for calls made by RCom's subscribers to the public sector firm's 1.6 million WLL phones.
BSNL is asking RCom to pay Rs 434.97 as ADC on the calls made under its fixed wireless service called 'Unlimited Cordless'. Earlier, RCom was of the opinion that since these phones were base phones there was no need to pay ADC.
However in 2005, TDSAT held that these were mobile phones and RCom would have to pay ADC. This was also upheld by the Supreme Court in April, 2008.