Tougher times for telecom operators in the country as India’s telecom watchdog Department of Telecommunications (DOT) taking strict steps to regulate the whole telecom industry. India’s second largest operator Vodafone India (earlier Hutch) has been slapped with a fine of Rs 100 crore by DOT for providing Subscriber Local Dialling services to its customers in two regions between 2003 and 2005.
Subscriber Local Dialling (SLD) is a service offered by telecom operators, which allow their customers who are on roaming to be on local network and thus avoid paying hefty charges on roaming and STD for calls and SMS. This service been beneficial for customers, but it violates the national routing plan and helped telecom operators to avoid levy charged with every long-distance call.
DOT earlier on June 2003 have asked Hutch (now Vodafone India) and also Bharti Airtel to stop the SLD service, but Hutch violated it and continue to operate the service till 2005. The Rs 100 crore fine has been slapped for this period between 2003 and 2005.
Bharti Airtel was also slapped with a fine of Rs 650 crore by DOT for providing SLD service in 13 telecom circles on May 30, 2013.