New Delhi: Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on October 28 filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal's (TDSAT) majority judgement, which had allowed limited mobility (WLL) services to basic operators.

"The appeal seeks to uphold the TDSAT chairman's (minority) judgement, which declared the service illegal and stated that the government's decision to permit WLL (M) was motivated by extraneous considerations to confer undue benefits on the fixed operators," COAI said in a statement.

Till date, no authority had shown any inclination to limit the service within the SDCA as mandated by the TDSAT, even as the industry had tried for three months to get members' judgement enforced and had reposed faith in government and the telecom regulator, T V Ramachandran, DG, COAI said.

"Large WLL (M) operators were offering full-fledged cellular mobile services with impunity and no corrective or punitive action had been taken against these violations," he said.

The Association of Basic Telecom Operators' (ABTO) appeal to Supreme Court against the TDSAT judgement making COAI respondents in the matter had also left the industry with no other option but to take appropriate legal counteraction to protect its stakeholders and consumers, Ramachandran said.

On August 8, TDSAT had dismissed petition of cellular operators challenging government's decision to allow basic operators to offer WLL limited mobile services.

PTI