The Telecom Regulatory of Authority of India (Trai) today said roaming facility offered by wireless in local loop (WLL) limited mobility operators was illegal.
It has sought explanation from Reliance Infocomm for offering roaming to its subscribers. The issue is set to snowball into yet another battle between cellular firms and basic service operators.
Cellular operators had approached the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal against Reliance and Tata Teleservices on the ground that they were offering roaming facility in violation of licence terms. The cellular firms had also approached the regulator on the matter.
Explaining Trai's position on the issue, its legal counsel Meet Malhotra said, "Offering WLL services outside the local call area, known as the short distance charging area, is prohibited and we have asked the operators to explain their position."
Arguing the case for Trai at the tribunal, Malhotra said the Tatas had assured that WLL services would not be available outside the short distance charging area.
The case was taken up for hearing today by the tribunal. The three-member Bench, however, declined to pass any direction on the matter. The case will be taken up again on February 17.
According to cellular firms, the crux of the problem was that WLL operators were flouting norms by offering services beyond the local calling area. They pointed to Reliance Infocomm's advertisement promising roaming across 600 cities.
Cellular firms also said Tata Teleservices was providing WLL services in Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, and Noida, though they were supposed to restrict their services to Delhi.
However, both the Tatas and Reliance have said they are not flouting licence norms. Reliance said it was using the call forwarding facility, which was permitted in the licence norms. For instance, a Reliance subscriber travelling from Delhi to Mumbai is given different telephone numbers for each city. When the subscriber is in Mumbai, calls landing on the Delhi number are forwarded to the Mumbai number. Unlike a cellular roaming facility, a Reliance subscriber will, however, not be connected while in transit.
While basic operators are allowed to provide call forwarding facility, Reliance is using the technology to offer roaming service. The Tatas, on the other hand, have said the coverage is being extended to adjoining areas of Delhi by default.
"At present there is not much load on the Tata Teleservices network in Delhi, which means some of the available frequency overflows into adjoining areas. But these are erratic and once our network starts running full capacity, the coverage will shrink," a Tata source said.
Cellular firms, however, said if WLL operators offered roaming services there would be no difference between the two services.
They said WLL operators were attempting to create a mass user base in an attempt to lend legitimacy to limited mobility by default. At present, nearly 180,000 WLL subscribers belong to private basic operators, while another 300,000 users avail of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) WLL services.
