No penalty on Hutch for push-to-talk: DoT

The department of telecommunications (DoT) does not favour a penalty on the lines of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) for Hutch for offering push-to-talk (PTT) service.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) faces a Rs 50-crore penalty for offering the service. Both the companies had stopped PTT services in March after receiving showcause notices from the regulator and the government.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which had earlier examined the issue, had said though Hutch and TTML had violated licensing conditions, both had provided PTT services "without any malafide intentions". Trai had also recommended that "no penal action be taken against the service providers."

According to the DoT, Hutch had not willfully violated the terms and conditions of the licence, since PTT services could also be offered under the universal access service licence.

Hutch, however, would receive a severe reprimand as the services were provided without settling issues related to security, monitoring and access deficit charges as per the terms and conditions of the universal licence, DoT officials said. This was in line with the Trai decision, they added.

In the case of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), the department had said the "suggestions of Trai could not be agreed to as the malafide intentions were clearly established." According to DoT, "Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) had provided PTT services under an Internet service provider licence."

"When the notice was first issued by the basic services cell of the department, the company had said the services were being offered under UASL, but it had applied only now for the universal licence," DoT said.

Additionally, the department had also charged that Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) and Tata Teleservices (which held a unified access service provider licence) had shared spectrum and active infrastructure for offering PTT services, resulting in further violation of the licensing conditions.

"It was thus proved beyond doubt that the basic intention of TTML was to avoid payment of licence fee and statutory payment like ADC and annual licence fee, which was 12 per cent of the AGR under the universal licence and Re 1 per annum for the ISP licence. Therefore, we are treating similar offenses by two companies differently," DoT sources said.