In a major setback to Bharti Telnet the telecom tribunal (TDSAT) has rejected its petition and directed that long distance (STD) calls of Bharti be routed through government owned BSNL from the point of origin.

Bharti had contended that it was entitled to carry long distance call traffic on its own up to the point where its network was available which would have resulted in huge savings to the company on payment of interconnection charges to BSNL.

Bharti Telnet is a sister concern of telecom major Airtel and has license to provide basic telephone services in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

As per the license agreement, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) was to provide national and inter circle links to the customers of Bharti Telnet. Through their interconnection agreement, Bharti was also connecting calls made by its subscribers to the BSNL's network on revenue share basis.