TDSAT on Friday rejected Bharti Tele-Ventures’ petition for refund from BSNL and MTNL on claims of excessive billing of interconnect charges. Bharti Tele-Ventures, now known as Bharti Airtel, had interconnect pacts with BSNL and MTNL for its STD and ISD networks.
The telco had challenged circulars issued by the PSUs through which they changed the billing system to multiport control unit pulse rate-based method from the earlier aggregated per minute basis system. Bharti said it was an arbitrary action and in violation of interconnect pacts signed with the PSU operators. It said it paid extra money to BSNL and MTNL following the change in the billing system and claimed a refund.