New Delhi: Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on February 10 moved telecom tribunal TDSAT (Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) against limited mobility operators accusing them of violating licence conditions and judicial orders of the tribunal, which "restrict WLL services within the local call area and prohibit roaming".

The decision of cellular operators to move TDSAT seems to have been provoked by recent advertisements by Reliance Infocomm to offer roaming services across 673 cities in India and also alleged WLL coverage by Tata Teleservices outside the Delhi Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA).

The cellular operators have also sought penal action against those WLL operators who are violating their licence terms.

"The WLL operators are in blatant violation of their licence conditions, government decision and the judicial orders of TDSAT, where-under WLL (mobility) services were to be restricted to only within the Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA) and roaming was explicitly prohibited," Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said in a statement.

The fact that the WLL (mobility) services are not permissible outside the SDCA has been admitted by the WLL operators themselves in various affidavits filed before the TDSAT, COAI claimed.

"However, in complete contravention of the stand of Department of Telecom and the private operators themselves, the Delhi phone of Tata Teleservices was working across multiple (SDCA) -- Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad -- and further that misleading advertisements were being published by Reliance Infocomm offering roaming services across 673 cities in India," it said.

PTI