Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd, the Telecom major and its group companies today moved to the Delhi High Court challenging TRAI’s Telecommunication Interconnect Usage Charges Regulations, 2015 by which it has fixed termination charges for wireline to wireless as zero paise and wireless to wireless to Rs 0.14 per minute. Vodafone is the India’s second-largest mobile network operator approached the Delhi High Court appealing against TRAI’s (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ) interconnection regulations.

Currently, the termination charges or the Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) are payable alone by one telco. Whenever a subscriber makes a call from one company to another whose subscriber of some other network receives the call, then the call charge is payable by the first for using the second’s network. Vodafone opposed these usage charge regulations and approached the HC today.

Delhi High Court Issues Notice to TRAI

After appealing against the TRAI to the High Court of Delhi, the court issued a notice to the Telecommunications sector. The Delhi Hight Court involving the Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw rejected to grant any interim relief to the telecom major speaking Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has to be heard and also because the regulations came in February 2015. The court asked TRAI to file its response within four weeks and postponed the issue for further hearing on January 19, 2016.

At the time of a brief hearing, the senior advocate K Viswanathan, in support for Vodafone said that the TRAI’s interconnection usage charges regulations are illegal, bad in fact and in law, arbitrary and in gross violation of the principles of natural justice. All these are beyond the functions of TRAI.

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He said, February 23, 2015, regulations–Mobile Termination Charges (MTC) and Fixed Termination Charges (FTC) under IUC Regulation–were “ultra vires TRAI Act and were contrary to the object and purpose of its provisions to the extent that it arbitrarily and in a non-transparent manner fixes the termination charges”.

The Senior advocate, Viswanathan stated that it is explicit that the fixation of regulations regarding the interconnectivity which includes the termination charge by TRAI cannot be zero. As the where costs are incurred by the terminating operator and therefore, the regulations fixing the charge as zero is ultra vires the provisions of TRAI Act.

He also raised a point that TRAI itself has stated in its Regulations in the year 2001 that the interconnection charges shall be fixed based on the cost to render recompense to the operators for work done for termination of calls on their network.

Viswanathan further submitted that TRAI, while agreeing that costs are incurred for terminating a call, has grossly erred and acted in an illegal manner and contrary to the provisions while fixing the termination charges for wireline to wireless as zero and wireless to wireless from Rs 0.20 per minute To Rs 0.14 per minute.