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TRAI order hiking rentals for basic telephones challenged

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI MARCH 5. The Madras High Court has admitted a writ petition filed by an advocate seeking to quash a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India order hiking rental charges for basic telephones and to restore the old pulse rate of five minutes for a local call.

The First Bench comprising the Chief Justice, B. Subhashan Reddy, and Justice K. Ravirajapandian, admitted the petition filed by K.R. Vijayakumar, and ordered notices to the Union Telecom Ministry, the TRAI, the Cellular Mobile Operators Association of India, Reliance Infocom, TATA Tele Service and the Association of Basic Telephone Operators.

Challenging the TRAI order dated January 24/25, the petitioner said the decision violated the TRAI Act provisions, which required that the organisations elicit public views before passing any order on tariff enhancement. He said while the GSM, CDMA and WLL operators were lowering their service cost, it was unreasonable for the TRAI to hike tariff.

By introducing a time limit of five minutes for each local call initially and then bringing it down to the present two minutes step by step, the TRAI indirectly hiked the tariff by 33.3 per cent.

Other measures such as slashing the number of free calls from 60 to 30 and hiking the rental from Rs. 250 to Rs. 280 a month resulted in further enhancement of tariffs.

He prayed for the quashing of the order and sought restoration of status quo ante in so far as service tariffs were concerned.

He also sought a direction restraining the respondent-organisations and their agents from levying and collecting any excess charges, as proposed in the impugned order from subscribers.

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