India - a possible mobile cartel

MRTPC issues notice against Bharti, Vodafone for cartelisation
see MTRPC

In a major set back to the three big telecom operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, anti-monopoly watchdog MRTPC today issued "notice of enquiry" against them for allegedly forming a cartel to distort competition.

Admitting a report of MRTPC's investigative unit DGIR, a Bench of the quasi-judicial body, headed by Justice O P Dwivedi, issued "notice of enquiry" and started judicial inquiry against these operators for cartelising and increasing prices of telecom services simultaneously.

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) Bench also directed the three companies to file their reply before it within four weeks.

In the investigation report, Director General of Investigations and Registrations (DGIR) has said that the three GSM operators, by colluding, have simultaneously increased the price.

The report stated that despite having different cost factors, structures and profits, they all fixed the tariff of their local call at Rs 1.20 a minute.

The report further said that though the rental and tariff charges of calls and SMS fall under the forbearance category under the Telecommunications Tariff (23rd amendment) and GSM operators are free to fix any tariff for their services, "But it can not be mere coincidence" that the tariff revision by them is of the identical scale."

It also said that the area of operation was different. Also, the operation cost of each operator was not on same scale and number of subscribers was different. In such a scenario, how they landed at the same tariff is a matter of investigation.