The Supreme Court will hear the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) petition filed against the judgement given by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on the 3G intra-circle roaming (ICR) pacts. DoT has challenged TDSAT’s decision to allow  ICR agreements between the telecom operators to offer 3G services in the telecom circles where they do not hold any 3G spectrum.

Earlier in 2011, the department had banned ICR pacts which allowed operators to offer 3G services in circles where they did not hold 3G spectrum. Terming such spectrum sharing arrangements illegal and in violation of the licensing regulations, DoT had imposed penalties of Rs 3.5 billion on Bharti Airtel, Rs 5.5 billion on Vodafone India  and Rs 3 billion on Idea Cellular.

Subsequently, the operators approached TDSAT against the ban. The tribunal cleared the 3G ICR signed between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular and quashed the penalties imposed on them. TDSAT has been of the view that such arrangement of spectrum sharing should be allowed as it leads to better utilisation of the scarce frequency airwaves.

This led to the telecom department filing a case against TDSAT’s judgement on overturning DoT’s decision and the respective penalties on these telecom operators.