Tribunal decision on penalty in VSNL-Flag case by Jun 30

The final award ascertaining the monetary compensation that Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) may have to pay to Reliance Communications subsidiary, Flag Telecom, will be announced by June 30.

Earlier, in its judgement, the International Arbitration Tribunal of ICC had stated that it "retains jurisdiction to determine what monetary relief, if any, is to be awarded to Flag Telecom to compensate it for VSNL's unlawful refusal to have granted it access to the Mumbai landing station".

Flag Telecom officials did not comment on the issue but said they were looking forward to a timely implementation of the tribunal's order. VSNL sources, too, reserved their comments, saying there were "legal implications to the issue".

Industry sources said various compensation models were being currently evaluated. One of the models - revenue opportunity and market share opportunity loss model - might be opted for, to settle the monetary issue as it is one of the most widely used practices worldwide.

Both the companies will also seek more clarifications on the tribunal's order, especially on issues relating to access to the landing stations and pricing of infrastructure costs, among others.