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Veeshal Bakshi & Siddharth Zarabi
New Delhi, May 23: In a telling blow to three cellular licence fee defaulters, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has jammed the networks of Koshika Telecom in UP, Bihar and Orissa, Aircell Digilink in UP (east), Rajasthan and Haryana and JT Mobiles in Punjab. DoT sources said the decision to block the networks was taken by communications minister Jagmohan on Friday and implemented on Saturday night after expiry of the 30-day licence fee termination notice to the three service providers.
This is the first instance of DoT taking such an extreme step against licence fee defaulters. JT, Aircell, Koshika and Hexacom were issued termination notices by DoT last month.
Subscribers of Koshika, Aircell and JT Mobiles can no longer receive or make calls to land line numbers as DoT has blocked access to its basic network. They also cannot make calls to subscribers of the second cellular service provider in their circles since such calls are routed through DoT's basic services network. Roaming facility too has beenaffected. Sources, however, said that subscribers of these three service providers can make cell-to-cell calls within their network.
The three cellular operators stand to lose large revenues since more than 70 per cent of the calls made to or received on cellular phones involve the use of DoT's basic (land lines) network. Koshika claims to have a subscriber base of over 1.20 lakh.
The outstanding licence fee dues in case of Koshika is a whopping Rs 405.93 crore for UP (east and west), Orissa and Bihar, Aircell Rs 270.44 crore for UP (east), Rajasthan and Haryana and JT Mobiles Rs 317.28 crore for Punjab. JT also has an outstanding licence fee of Rs 139 crore for Karnataka and Rs 97 crore for Andhra Pradesh but DoT could not take action for these two circles as the company has already been granted a stay from the court, sources in DoT said.
All the three service providers have not paid 20 per cent of their outstanding licence fee demanded by DoT in January this year.
Similarly, Hexacom, the licenceholder for north east and Rajasthan, was also granted a stay order till October 27. Hexacom, which has an outstanding licence fee of Rs 55.77 crore for these circles, had paid 20 per cent its outstanding due, but after the expiry of the deadline.
Aircell Digilink sources, while confirming the jamming of their network by DoT, said the department did not give any prior warning, thereby inconveniencing customers. Sources said the company would be seeking legal recourse against what they termed as a "arbitrary" move on the part of DoT.
Koshika is also expected to take legal recourse but a company spokesperson refused to comment on DoT's action.
Industry sources said that in case the jamming by DoT continues for a few days, these service providers could see a run on security deposits accepted by them from subscribers.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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