The department of telecommunications (DoT) has decided not to appeal against the judgment of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which quashed the fixed-to-cellular tariff proposed by the department. The decision has been cleared by communications minister Beni Prasad Verma.
DoT is learnt to have taken the decision despite internal estimates of a notional loss of Rs 2,000-3,000 crore over the next 10 years. The loss figure was worked out on subscriber and traffic projections made by the cellular industry.
The decision comes a day after the DoT brass issued orders to chief general managers of all telecom circles (mostly analogous to a state) revoking the departments January 29 order, which had raised the fixed-to-cellular tariff to a maximum of Rs 28 and a minimum of Rs 6 for a three-minute call.
Also Read
Reacting to the DoT letter to telecom circles, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) yesterday decided to withdraw its petition before TRAI. The petition had sought an immediate implementation of the regulators April 25 order quashing the new fixed-to-cellular tariff.
The order was to have been implemented on May 1. But when DoT had not executed it even by May 8, COAI filed a petition with TRAI. The regulator had set today for hearing the petition.