Not only this, MTNL's move to waive registration fees of Rs 3,000 for a new telephone connection if subscribers also took MTNL's internet connection, has also been given the red signal by the TRAI which says it will have to look into the ``new tariff package'' offered by MTNL before it can be formally flagged off.

The MTNL WLL phone offers ``limited mobility'' and goes with a monthly rental of Rs 1,000 with call charges at Rs 1.20 for a three-minute call as against Rs 6 per minute charged by cell phone companies. Cellular operators had therefore complained to the TRAI thatthis would hurt their business. They said with MTNL not paying any licence fee to the Government had in any case no permission to launch this new service and were violating the level playing field principle essential for any fair competition.

MTNL is now stuck with a Rs 25 crore investment in the project for providing 10,000 such phones in Delhi. The first consignment of 4,500 WLL phone which go with an initial refundable deposit of Rs 10,000 which gives the subscriber a small cell- phone-looking Samsung handset which almost plays the part of cell phone have already been procured by MTNL. The Quallcom equipment enabling this service had also been installed at all exchanges in Delhi and Mumbai.

S Rajagopalan, Chairman and Managing Director of MTNL confirmed the receipt of TRAI's order but said that it was not a new service that he was launching. ``The technology for accessing the same basic telephony has now changed and replaced by WLL the world over,'' Rajagopalan explained. ``This WLL technology has aninherent feature of limited mobility which however, is in no way comparable to the GSM cellular technology being used by the cellular operators,'' he added.

On the new tariff scheme waiving registration charges of Rs 3,000 for a new phone for new internet subscribers which has also been put on hold by the TRAI Rajagopalan said that this not a new arrangement. ``Normally when there were waiting lists for telephone lines this was an arrangement for people to make their bookings, and in any case this was adjusted against the installation charges and the first two months' rental for the phone,'' Rajagopalan said. ``Now there is no waiting for phones in Delhi and Mumbai so we decided to send new subscribers bills from the first month onwards alongwith the installation charges rather than charging them upfront,'' he said.

This is not the first time that MTNL has been restrained from offering services by the TRAI. The TRAI had earlier stopped MTNL from operating cellular services in Delhi and Mumbai, a case forwhich is currently on at the Delhi High Court.

When TRAI stalled MTNL's cellular services, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) dragged the matter to court for overstepping its jurisdiction on licensing issues as the licence for cellular service was given to MTNL by the DoT. The case was first won by DoT under the single bench under Justice Usha Mehra. After which the private cellular companies appealed to a division bench of the Delhi High Court for which hearings are over and the judgement is expected shortly.