TDSAT declares Walky a mobile service

BSNL likely to recover Rs 500 crore as access deficit charge.

The telecom tribunal has ruled that Walky, a fixed service using wireless in local loop (WLL) offered by Tata Teleservices, was a mobile service.

The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has also directed the company to pay access deficit charges (ADCs), a levy to compensate the unviable services of BSNL in rural areas, for its fixed wireless terminal (FWT) services.

"As per licensing conditions, fixed wireless service has to be provided within the subscriber premises, wherever it is not, it has to be treated as WLL(Mobile)," the TDSAT said today.

"Desktop Walky phone is capable of providing service outside the premises and Tata Teleservics admittedly was providing service outside the premises within the short distance calling area. Therefore, it has to be treated as a WLL(M) phone," the tribunal added.

Following the judgment, Bharat Sanchar Nigam said it would demand ADC from Reliance Infocomm, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, HFCL and Shyam Telelink which have also been providing FWT servics for the last two years.

BSNL executives said the company hoped to recover close to Rs 500 crore as ADC from the three companies - Tatas, MTNL and Reliance.

"We have already issued notices to MTNL and Reliance for ADC bypass on the FWT service. The tribunal's decision implies that they have no option but pay up," said a senior BSNL executive.

Reacting to the judgment, the company in a statement said: "India leads the world in this technology and the number of customers using this service. It will be a shame to have a product classification from TDSAT and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) impact a service that provides all the advantages of a home phone, high speed internet connectivity and SMS." Regarding the amount that is owed to BSNL, the company said that it had "received demand notices for less than 20 crores, and it would also examine any additional demand notices for methodology, time frames and pay the proper amount based on the TDSAT ruling".

Tata Teleservices is also exploring the possibility of appealing against the TDSAT's decision in the Supreme Court.

The TDSAT ruling will result in FWT services being subjected to an ADC of 30 paise per minute. This implies that the tariffs for these calls are likely to increase to Rs 2.10 for a three minute call from the current Rs 1.20. FWT service providers said the TDSAT order was a serious setback to expansion of the service in India. There are close to 600,000 FWT subscribers in India and it has accounted for over 90 per cent of basic connections over the last two years.

On August 26, the DoT had issued a directive categorising FWT services on par with mobile service on the grounds that operators had not taken the requisite steps to confine these phones to the premises of the subscriber. Service providers had accused DoT of jumping the gun and not waiting for the TDSAT to deliver its judgment on the issue. "The judgment proves that the department was right in categorising this service as equivalent to mobile services" said a DoT official.