Asergis petition against Airtel

Asergis Telecom Services, a fully-owned subsidiary of UK-based Asergis Global Services, on Wednesday filed a petition in the telecom tribunal, TDSAT, to restrain Bharti Airtel from blocking its toll-free intelligent network numbers. Asergis has taken toll-free numbers on lease from Tata Teleservices to avail the facility of audio conferencing.

Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices have an interconnection agreement between themselves. In the IN services, a toll free number is alloted and the caller does not have to bear the cost of call and charges are paid by the company holding the number.

In the petition before Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), Asergis Telecom has alleged that Airtel was blocking its subscribers from accessing Asergis toll-free numbers on the plea that calls were terminating outside India.

The firm has requested the tribunal to declare Airtel's action as "illegal and in breach of the UASL (Unified access Service Licence)" and to restrain it "from withdrawing access to the inter connection between Airtel and Tata Teleservices" of its IN numbers.