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Mumbai , Aug. 8

THE two largest limited mobility service operators - Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices - are, predictably, happy with the judgment of the TDSAT; both have created equities on the ground, having launched their limited mobility services across their circles of operation, and would have had much to rollback had the TDSAT judgment been different.

"We are very happy regarding the judgment given by TDSAT confirming WLL (M) to be legal telecom service," said Mr S. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices, in a statement issued by the company on Friday. "The consumer positive judgment augurs well for increased customer adoption to this service."

Tata Teleservices limited mobility service Tata Indicom Mobile had its culminatory launch in the Tata home territory of Mumbai only a few days ago.

A statement from Reliance Infocomm said: "On the issue of WLL(M), the TDSAT in a majority judgment has upheld the policy of the Government of India permitting basic operators to provide limited mobile services under the basic service licence. We welcome the judgment since it upholds the rights of the consumer to have access to the benefits of latest technology available in the world at affordable prices. Reliance Infocomm has always been regulatory compliant and will continue to provide state-of -the- art technology to its customers within the Government framework."

Individual GSM cellular operators said they had no comments to make but had vested all their opinions with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

However, a top official of one of the cellular companies said that whether the judgment was welcome to them or not, the qualifications contained in it were certainly very welcome, "such as the indication that there would be a level playing field."

"We hope that this would mean either that we get a rebate on entry fee or that the limited mobility players will have to pay more fees."

A senior MTNL official observed that with some feverish activity happening on the concept of the unified license, the chapter on the subject "cannot be quite over."

He said it is unlikely that WLL tariffs would rise, should the operators have to pay more license fees. "They are already more expensive than landline; and to be a preferred choice over GSM operators, especially at a time when they are breaking into the market, they would not raise tariffs."

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