JUDGMENT

KAPADIA, J. - This civil appeal is filed under Section 18 of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 ("1997 Act") by M/s Reliance Infocomm Ltd. against judgment and order delivered by Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal ("TDSAT") dated 17.1.2006 dismissing petition No. 108 of 2005 challenging the directive dated 4.3.2005 by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ("TRAI"), circulars dated 23.3.2005 and 26.8.2005 issued by DoT and demands raised by BSNL for ADC for the period 14.11.2004 to 26.8.2005.

2. The short question which arises for determination in this civil appeal is whether "Unlimited Cordless" service" ("the impugned service" for short) of the appellant is covered under the definition of WLL(M) service as defined in Regulation 2(xxviii) of the Telecommunication Interconnection Usage Charges Regulation, 2003 which defines WLL(M) as limited mobility service using WLL technology within Short Distance Charging Area ("SDCA"). According to TRAI and DoT, fixed wireless phones ("FWP")/fixed wireless service ("FWS") which operate beyond the subscribers premises is classifiable as WLL(M) service for the purpose of payment of ADC to BSNL whereas, according to the appellant, FWS is limited to one base transceiver station ("BTS") within which the service operates and, consequently, this service is classifiable as WLL(F) and not as WLL(M).

Facts:

3. On 18.3.1997, appellant was granted licence by DoT for providing basic services in Gujarat which included fixed wireless services but which preferred wireless technology for the subscriber local loop. On 20.7.2001 appellant was granted licence by DoT for providing basic services in different service areas in the country which included fixed wireline service and limited mobile service. In November, 2003 appellant was permitted to migrate to the Unified Access Service Licence ("UASL") which categorized wireless services into 3 categories, viz., fixed wireless access ("FWA"), limited mobility [WLL(M)] and fully mobile service(s).

Submissions of Shri K. K. Venugopal, learned senior counsel for the appellant:

4. According to the appellant, in November, 2003 appellant was permitted to migrate to UASL under which appellant was permitted to provide following services: (i) Fixed Wireless (ii) FWA (iii) WLL(M) (iv) Fully Mobile Service. According to the appellant, ever since its migration to the UASL, it has been operating fixed services including FWA and full mobile services. The appellant was not operating WLL(M). According to the appellant, "limited mobile service" has been defined in UASL granted by DoT and in the IUC Regulation 2003 framed by TRAI under Section 11 of the 1997 Act as a service which enables operations throughout a SDCA. At this stage, it may be noted that the whole of Delhi is one single SDCA. That, appellant was, therefore, operating its FWA service within the area of one Base Transceiver Station (BTS).

5. According to the appellant a BTS is necessary wherever there is a congested area, like Chandni Chowk where digging for laying an optical fibre cable is not feasible and, in such a case, a BTS has to be set up where wireless link has to be established between the telephone exchange and the BTS which in turn could be accessed by telephone receiver set through Radio Frequency ("RF") signals. However, according to the appellant, in the case of full mobile cellular services, several BTSs. are required to be set up by each service provider in the entire service area for transmitting signals to the terminals (handsets). That, these handsets are required to be aligned electronically to a single BTS or the handset could access RF signals from other base stations BTSs. from any part of the SDCA

6. According to the appellant, in case of full mobility, the signals are available in the entire service area (a telecom circle equivalent to a State). Therefore, according to the appellant, fixed wireline service being a wireline service alone stood restricted