TDSAT grants interim relief to Vodafone Idea

An apex telecom tribunal on Friday granted interim relief to Vodafone Idea Ltd, allowing the telco to continue signing up new customers under its premium plan RedX. Vodafone Idea had approached the tribunal after the telecom regulator put on hold its plan offering faster data speeds for customers in higher tariff brackets.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) allowed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to continue investigating if the telco violated service norms, observing it is not necessary to put the plan on hold while the probe was on. Shares of Vodafone Idea jumped 12.8% on BSE following the order, while the benchmark Sensex index closed 1.5% higher.

The move comes as a breather for Bharti Airtel Ltd as well, which last week launched its Platinum plan with a similar premium offer for postpaid users.