The battle has just begun and has been passed on to the marketplace where both the Wireless-in-Local Loop (WLL) and the cellular operators would fight it out for dominance. For the WLL operators providing the limited mobility services, when the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had in its ruling on August 8, 2003 legalized the WLL services, keeping aside the various apprehensions of the cellular operators. The controversy has now reached its peak that it is no more confined to the `limited mobility' factor and is being dubbed as a battle between Reliance Infocomm and the cellular operators. Remember the cellular operators refusing to provide interconnection to the WLL operators, MTNL and BSNL blocking calls originating from the cellular networks and terminating on their networks. The unified licensing regime being proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is nothing but an extension of these clashes.

The roots to the present problems in the Indian telecom industry can be traced back to the year 2000 when the department of telecommunications decided to introduce the concept of limited mobility wireless-in-local loop services. The idea behind the introduction of such a concept was to increase the tele-density in the country besides freeing the telecom fixed line services from the government-controlled BSNL and MTNL. The WLL operators were supposed to offer their services in what is called as the Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCA) so that there is a clear distinction between the WLL and the cellular mobile services.

The cellular operators who were opposing this move by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) appealed to the TDSAT against such a move. The TDSAT in its judgment on March 15, 2002 dismissed the fears of the cellular operators and allowed the continuity of the WLL services in the interests of the customer, stating that the WLL services would not hamper the interests of the cellular industry because WLL services would be confined to SDCA of 20-25 km. Then the cellular operators, unsurprisingly, moved the Supreme Court against this order.

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