New Delhi: Bharti Airtel preferred challenge against the Interconnect Usage Charges Regulations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India- TRAI fixing termination charges for wireless to wireless at Fourteen Paisa per minute and Landline to Wireless as Zero Pasa per minute.
The said Interconnection Usage Charges- IUC or Termination Charges are those charges which the telecommunication company whose subscriber is making call, need to pay to the other company whose subscriber is receiving the call.
The issue was raised by the well know telecommunication company Bharti Airtel before the honourable High Court of Delhi against TRAI. And the bench of the said Court comprising of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath has admitted the case and issued notice against TRAI.
Moreover, the Bench has also required the TRAI in its notice that to file its reply on the next date of hearing. And doing so, the Bench has fixed the matter for next date i.e. on 1st day of March, 2016.
Also, notably, in the month of November, last year, the similar plea is also preferred by the Vodafone Mobile Service Limited.
Thus, in the present concerned plea preferred by Bharti Airtel, it has sought the quashing of the Telecom Interconnect Usage Charges Regulations. Also, it is seeking the directions against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to the effect that it should fix the termination charges by applying the cost based and work done principle on a non- discriminatory basic.
However, the Vodafone company has sought in its preferred claim that the said Regulations are illegal and bad in the fact and also in the law. Moreover, it has also sought to declare such regulations as arbitrary and in gross violation of the principles of the Natural justice. In its plea, Vodafone has also submitted that the ‘Zero’ fixation of the terms of inter-connectivity should not be there as the costs are incurred by the terminating operator and as such the said Regulation was claimed to be declared as Ultra virus and against the provisions of the TRAI law.
Thus, in the Airtel’s case, the TRAI has now been required to answer the query put forwarded by the Delhi High Court’s bench.