Licence not violated on call routing: Reliance

Reliance Infocomm (RIL) today told the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) that the company had not violated the terms and conditions of its licence agreement by allegedly routing international long distance calls as local.

Challenging the Rs 150 crore penalty imposed by the department of telecommunications on RIL for "violation of the licence norms by rerouting international long distance calls as local calls", the company's counsel Harish Salve told the tribunal that the usage of home-country-direct service by RIL was fully recgonised by the international telecom union.

On the telecom department's charge that Reliance Infocomm had tampered with the caller line identification (CLI) facility, Salve said over 40 per cent of the calls did not have proper CLI, and therefore, the company was following the government's directive on such calls. The directive was that the company was to use its own switch numbers to identify such calls.

The government's charge that tampering with the CLI was a national security issue was a "bogey" as the caller identification facility did not come through in most calls, he added.

Salve also said the government had prejudged the issue and was at fault for giving out statements even before the tribunal could hear the case.

"Even as we have placed our reply before you (the tribunal), Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran has told the media that the government can cancel the licence. It is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that can recommend the cancellation if a licensee violates the agreement.

"We are a company with international dimensions. The government cannot make such statements," he said.

The Department of Telecommunications will be presenting its case on February 10. The hearing will continue till February 11, after which the tribunal is expected to give its judgment.