TRAI issues show cause notice to Bharti

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a show cause notice to the Bharti group for continuing to provide subscriber local dialing services, despite the government's instructions to stop it.






While the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directed cellular companies to discontinue the service from June 2003, Bharti provided the services till January this year.





In the "subscriber local dialing" service, the cellular operators permitted their roaming subscribers to be accessed by the local subscribers on a local call basis, which caused a huge loss to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL). The loss was to the tune of Rs 740 crore during December 2002 and June 2003, when the services were offered by the cellular operators.





According to Airtel executives, the company had sought time to reply to TRAI's notice.





"DoT has informed the regulator that Bharti claimed to continue the services after duly notifying the same to TRAI and these services were provided till January," the TRAI notice said.





The regulator has said that Bharti cellular should explain why the company had violated the conditions of the license agreement.





Earlier this month, DoT had sought information from various cellular operators, including Hutch, Bharti and Spice, if there was any violation of licensing norms under 'subscribers local dialing' service provided by them. Following DoT's directive, service providers had stopped the services.