Telecom Lead India: Asergis Telecom has won the TDSAT case against Bharti Airtel, India’s top telecom service provider.
Asergis Telecom will also be approaching TDSAT for claiming financial damages of around Rs 10 crore towards lost business and damage of reputation.
TDSAT on Friday ordered Airtel to stop blocking its subscribers from accessing toll-free Intelligent Network numbers leased from Tata Teleservices.
Details of the TDSAT case between Airtel and Asergis Telecom
The customers of Bharti Airtel can now use and have access to the Asergis Toll Free Number Audio Conferencing service.
On 3 October 2012 Asergis took legal action against Airtel for blocking our subscribers from accessing toll-free Intelligent Network numbers leased from Tata Teleservices.
“I’m very happy with today’s result and justice has been done. But the fight is not yet over and our company is ready to continue the battle with Bharti Airtel. “I’m also very confident that the courts will decide in our favor again, as the amount of evidence we have presented to them is compelling and comprehensive in its scope,” said George Adade, CEO, Asergis Telecom Services.
Bharti Airtel spokesperson is not available for comments on the issue.
According to Asergis, Bharti Airtel has blocked access of its subscribers to Asergis’ toll-free numbers from September 11, 2012 purportedly on the ground that Asergis is offering the facility of international toll free service in guise of domestic toll free service.
Asergis in its petition to TDSAT has mentioned that all calls are inbound and hit Tata Teleservices platform i.e. conferencing bridge at Delhi only, which can be verified by call data records (CDRs) available with Tata Teleservices. All toll-free numbers taken by Asergis from Tata Teleservices are mapped with DIDs located at Tata Teleservices’ Delhi IDC (data centre). Asergis is using resources or backbone of Tata Teleservices to transport traffic and even the equipment are located at Tata Teleservices’ data centre under supervision 24×7.
The petition mentions that Bharti Airtel has acted with malafide intent and that it has no authority to investigate the customers of Tata Teleservices. Bharti Airtel on its own cannot take unilateral and arbitrary decision to block the access to its subscribers by assuming the role of licensor and regulator.
