TATA TELESERVICES LTD Vs. BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE controversy in these civil appeals is: whether appellant is liable to pay Access deficit Charges ("adc") to BSNL for the period commencing from 14. 11. 2004 to 26. 8. 2005 in respect of its service provided under its brand name "walky".

(2.) ADC is a levy imposed by TRAI (Regulator)on the operators (service providers) to support roll out of telephones in rural areas. Since bsnl owns 99% of the rural phones, ADC constitutes a levy for the appellant and a subsidy for BSNL. The said ADC has two parts:

(3.) GIVEN an ambitious target to achieve a teledensity of 7%, the NTP 1999 sought to bring private players into basic service which is the minimum facility and in which mobility as feature of a telecom service was not a part of basic service. The permissibility to provide a service is determined by the terms and conditions of a licence granted by Dot whereas obligation to pay interconnection usage charges/adc is determined by TRAI through its regulations framed under section 36 of the 1997 Act in conformity with the licence conditions.