Indian Government Slams 3G Roaming Treaties!

The Telecom Ministry has thrashed service providers for violating the license norm, by getting into 3G roaming pacts. The ministry has demanded the operators to give up the agreements and any failure to do so would incur heavy penalties. This latest development has disturbed the telecom operators' composure, who have been seeking to increase their revenue by investing millions to acquire the 3G license. The government decision was came into fore when #-Link-Snipped-#, Law Ministry and DoT as a whole stated that the pact among the operators violated the telecom license guidelines.

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Source: Bogartier.com

Previously , the telecom big guns like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea had got into a pact with each other to render 3G services in circles where they didn't possess spectrum license. Tata Teleservices and Aircel had got into similar pacts in six circles but had to break off the pact later. The DoT reasoned their opposition by stating that such pacts could result in a great loss of revenue to the government. Nevertheless, the department sought law ministry's view on this issue. TRAI also played off the current pacts among the operators, citing them to be infringement of the license standards. This move has nettled the operators, so much that they threatened to give up their 3G licenses. All eyes are now fixed on the Prime Minister to step into the matter and resolve it peacefully.