Right call: TDSAT's interim ruling is judicious for many reasons

Trai's tariff order allowed pricing flexibility to telcos with less than 30 per cent of the market subscribers or industry revenue through the new definition of SMP

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) recently stayed a regulatory order that had sought to define significant market power (SMP) and predatory pricing differently. The TDSAT ruling, though interim, would provide relief to the country’s incumbent telecom operators facing severe financial stress. Companies such as Bharti Airtel and Idea had appealed to the tribunal against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) mid-February order arguing that the revised norms benefit only Reliance Jio, the newest player in the sector. The tribunal’s intervention is timely and sends out a signal for a fair and unbiased regulatory environment. In its