TDSAT on Tuesday reserved its order on the interim plea of Tata Teleservices,
which had approached the telecom tribunal against Vodafone's notice
threatening to disconnect termination of SMSes on its network over a
dispute on certain fees.
A single-member Telecom Disputes Settlement
and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) bench of P K Rastogi reserved his interim
order after hearing the arguments from both the sides.
On
November 7, Vodafone had issued termination notice to Tata Teleservices
Ltd (TTSL) asking it to pay Rs 188 crore as SMS termination fee by
November 17, failing which it would disconnect the Tata group firm SMSes
from its network.
Following this, TTSL had moved TDSAT requesting
the tribunal to set aside the notice issued by Vodafone. It had also
alleged that Vodafone had unilaterally changed the IUC (Interconnection
Usage Charges) conditions.
TTSL had also requested the tribunal to
pass an interim order to restrain Vodafone ex-parte from giving effect
to its demands and taking any coercive action against it.
On
November 16, during the last hearing, Vodafone had assured TDSAT that it
would not stop interconnection of TTSL SMSes from its network.
Vodafone is demanding termination fee from TTSL at the rate of 10 paise per SMS from April 2011.
Termination
charges are paid by an operator from whose network calls or SMSes
originate to the one on whose network these communications end. These
charges impact tariffs.