In what could be aptly called a Christmas and new-year gift to Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Saturday directed Department of Telecom (DoT) not to go ahead with ban on 3G roaming against three service providers till Jan 3.

The tribunal’s order has come as a much needed time-out amid open hostility between the government and operators.

The three operators have strongly criticized the decision of the government to scrap 3G roaming pacts between them calling it arbitrary and unreasonable.

The tribunal specifically asked DoT not to take any ‘coercive action’ against them till the next hearing on Jan3. TDSAT also asked the operators to submit the roaming pact they had signed among themselves for its examination. Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone had moved the telecom tribunal Friday evening challenging the DoT order.

While DoT has all along been arguing that 3G roaming pacts among the private operators would cause revenue loss to the government, the three operators have raised their concerns over the government’s ruling saying that it will severely affect the investment and subscribers. The DoT had asked the mobile phone companies to terminate their 3G roaming agreement by 3 pm Saturday.

Reacting to DoT’s decision of calling the 3G roaming pacts between the operators as illegal, Bharti airtel had said, “We are shocked at the arbitrary decision taken by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to issue instructions to stop intra circle roaming (ICR) for 3G services among the telecom operators.” 

Vodafone called the decision as ‘completely unreasonable’. “The 3G roaming agreements that Vodafone has entered into with other operators are in complete compliance with all Government rules and regulations and this issue was specifically clarified by DoT before the 3G auction was held”. It said in a statement.