Tata Teleservices Ltd vs Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. & Ors

4. Under the NTP, 1999, all new cellular mobile service providers had to pay a fixed fees upon entry, and then pay a portion of their revenues to the Government. However, after August, 1999 the revenue-sharing arrangement came into effect.

7. During 1997 April, 2003, there was no liability to pay ADC ( a concept introduced by TRAI in 2003).

High mobility of the users is one of the important properties of cellular telephone. The location of a user can change significantly during a call which can originate from the user or from the network. In cellular telephony a mobile user communicates with a base station. The base stations are connected to MSC, which is connected to the public telephone system. The most important aspect of cellular telephony is the unlimited mobility. The user can be anywhere within the coverage area of the network (i.e., it is not limited to a specific cell). The user can move from one cell to another even during one call.

connectivity is to be fixed by TRAI; it is mandatory function of TRAI to do so and, therefore, it is beyond the competence of BSNL to re-classify and fix the ADC liability on to the appellants.

31. In this civil appeal we are not concerned with WLL per se but with the concept of "limited mobility".

33. FWT units differ from mobile terminal units operating within cellular networks such as GSM - in that a fixed wireless terminal or deskphone will be limited to an almost permanent location with no roaming facility.

34. WLL + FWT are generic terms for radio based telecommunications technologies and the respective devices which can be implemented using a number of different wireless and radio technologies. In generic sense, WLL is a technology. It cannot be equated to WLL(M) which is a service like WLL(F). Under the Worldwide Database, WLL does not refer to Limited Mobility. Worldover WLL is used to provide Fixed Wireless Access for speedy roll-out of fixed services. However, under the NTP 1999, cellular operators are allowed to offer all types of mobile services whereas fixed operators like the appellants are allowed to offer fixed services.

35. The core issue, therefore, is not whether Limited Mobility is or is not possible but whether fixed operators are liable to pay ADC when the service(s) provided by them fall in WLL(M) service.

This issues with the approval of the Authority.

Sd/-

(R.K. Bhatnagar) Advisor (FN)"

10th Floor, Tower-I, Jeevan Bharti, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001.

Sub: Alleged Violation of licence conditions.

SNo. SERVICE AREA LICENCE AGREEMENT NO.

2. Gujarat 10-05/2004/BSII/TTSL/Guj.

7. West Bengal 20-201/2003/TATA/BSIII

10. H.P. 20-207/2003/TATA/BSIII

11. Kerala 20-210/2003/TATA/BSIII

16. UP(W) 20-218/2003/TATA/BSIII

17. UP (E) 20-219/2003/TATA/BSIII

Whereas a notice was issued for alleged violation of conditions and not limited to clause 2 of Unified Access Services Licences on 06.01.2005 and 31.01.2005 regarding WALKY service.

39. In our view, there is no merit in the above contention advanced on behalf of the appellants that the above directive dated 4.3.2005 is amendatory and not clarificatory. The reasons are as follows.

41. To sum up, in WLL(F) the telephone is the access point if the antenna is in-built in the telephone. If the impugned service is operable throughout SDCA it is WLL(M). In WLL(F), location of end-user termination and the network access point to be connected to the end-user are fixed. If the impugned service cannot comply with PSR it is classifiable as WLL(M) for IUC, ADC, Numbering Plan etc. Lastly, the only difference between fixed wireline and WLL(F) is that WLL(F) is a cheap cable replacement without additional features. WLL(F) is limited to specific premises of the subscriber or permanent location.

47. In our judgment, we have examined the nature of the services, the status of the circulars issued by TRAI and the status of the directive issued by DoT. The reasons given in our judgment are in addition to the reasons given in the impugned order dated 9.9.2005 by TDSAT. We find no infirmity in the judgment of TDSAT.

50. Accordingly, civil appeals stand dismissed with no order as to costs.