Telecom bench TDSAT on Tuesday asked the Department of Telecom to put on hold the encashment of bank guarantees in the penalty case of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea till the coming date of hail.

The Telecom Controversies Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) bench headed by Justice Shiv Kirti Singh listed the matter for hearing on October 26.
“. No encashment of bank guarantee shall be resorted to till the coming date,”Singh said.

As per the Department of Telecom, companies are needed to pay the penalty by October 21.
The telecom bench didn’t grant a stay on the penalty notice.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea moved the telecom bench to challenge Telecom Department’s demand notices for payment of Rs crore accretive penalties in the points of interconnect matter.
The Department of Telecom ( Fleck) has slighted a penalty of Rs crore on Vodafone Idea and Rs crore on Bharti Airtel grounded on sector controller Trai’s recommendation five times agone, for violating morals by denying Reliance Jio points of interconnect (PoIs) way back in 2016.

The PoI are needed to connect networks of telecom drivers.
Attorneys representing Vodafone Idea argued that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommended a penalty grounded on just one day reading of quality of service data and indeed didn’t average it over the period of 30 days as per the morals.

In October 2016, Trai had recommended assessing a total penalty of Rs crore on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea ( now merged) for allegedly denyinginter-connectivity to Reliance Jio.
The controller had, at that time, stopped suddenly of recommending cancellation of their telecom licences saying it may lead to significant consumer vexation.

Trai’s recommendation had come on a complaint by Reliance Jio that over 75 per cent of calls on its network were failing as incumbents weren’t releasing sufficient figures of PoIs.