Panel asks Tata to pay damages to RCom

NEW DELHI: Tata Communications has been directed by the global arbitration tribunal to pay 19 million dollars plus interest as damages over a cable dispute two years ago.
 
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the global arbitration tribunal, has directed Tata Communications to pay Reliance Communication subsidiary about 19 million dollars plus interest from May 2006 as damages over a cable dispute.
 
"In the matter of the ICC arbitration proceedings brought by Reliance Globalcom Ltd, formerly known as Flag Telecom, against Tata Communications Ltd, the Tribunal has on ugust 27, 2008 handed down a final award dealing with the issue of damages," Tata Communications said in a regulatory filing on Monday.
 
"The tribunal has directed Tata Communications to pay Reliance a sum of approximately 19 million dollars plus interest from May 2006 as damages against the 385 million dollars sum claimed by Reliance," the company said in a BSE filing.
 
Tata Communications said this was the tribunal's final award in the ICC arbitration proceedings over a dispute regarding Flag Europe Asia (FEA) cable ongoing since 2004. The dispute between the two companies goes back a few years, when FLAG accused the then state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) -- now Tata Communications -- of denying it free access to its cable landing station and thereby having a monopolistic hold on bandwidth prices.