NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a show
cause notice to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) for launching its mobile
services without taking TRAI's approval on the tariffs. The show cause notice is
to be replied by October 20. According to sources in TRAI, MTNL or DoT's stand
that they had filed for the approval is misleading as what the regulator had
approved was CDMA-based fixed wireless in local loop (WLL) services and not the
mobile services.
On September 27, MTNL filled for tariff approval for the CDMA-based mobile
services, and, without awaiting TRAI's approval, launched the services, arguing
that it has fulfilled the criterion of informing TRAI five days before
implementing the new tariff. According to the sources in TRAI, mobile service
based on CDMA is not the same as the one based on GSM. And TRAI so far has not
fixed the tariff for the service based on CDMA technology as it was only
recently that DoT decided to use any technology to provide cellular services in
the country.
Therefore, tariff for the mobile cellphone service based on new technology is
yet be defined let alone finalized. Therefore, defying TRAI under the pretext of
having fulfilled the criterion of seeking approval five days in advance for a
different technology is not valid for, this 'five days' norm is applicable when
you have the tariff for that particular technology in place. Therefore, by doing
so, not only has MTNL discredited TRAI but also made public its bad planning in
the launch of the new service which it has to suspend with the excuse that it is
unable to cope with overwhelming response.