The case of the Jio just keeps getting bigger and bigger every day up to the point of 3,050 crores. The TRAI today fined three top telecom operators – Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea cellular – for non-compliant with licence conditions and service quality norms given the high rate of call failures and congestion at interconnect points for Reliance Jio.
Interconnevity is the basis on which one telecom network user can call the other telecom network user through Points of Interconnectivity (POIs). Generally if enough POIs are available and he service conditions have been complied with, then at the maximum 5 calls per 1,000. But as per the reports provided by TRAI over 12 crore calls failed daily between Jio and he said three networks. “This appears to be with the ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer” said one of the spokespersons of Reliance Jio. Although Vodafone and Idea weren’t available for comment, an Airtel spokesperson said that “We are continuously augmenting the PoIs provided to Reliance Jio and pace of augmentation has been the fastest ever done by us. Further we are in full compliance of the requirements of grade of service set by TRAI.”
But the TRAI has found fault with all the three networks and charge a fine of 50 crores per circle for 21 of the 22 circles for Vodafone and Airtel (excepting Jammu and Kashmir) and for 19 circles of Idea, bringing the amount upto 1,050 crores for the former networks and 950 crores for the latter. “However, the authority is mindful of the fact that revocation of the licence will entail significant consumer inconvenience and therefore in view of the larger public interest involved, the authority recommends a penal action of Rs. 50 crores per LSA (circle)…,” said TRAI officials.
He row had ruptured mainly because of the free traffic that Jio has been levying on its customers, bringing down the business of top telecom operators. The friction was already unfurling into fights when TRAI intervened and gave the telecom operators 10 days’ time to rectify their numbers. In reply to this, Idea and Vodafone insisted on the show cause notice being “defective, invalid, and premeditated” and deflected the defaults back to Reliance Jio. Airtel said that the notice was premature and it is making effort to augment interconnection. Irrespective of the pleas, TRAI gave them a deadline of October 17th, 2016 to increase the quality of their services or pay up. As the issue is still not solved, the company has fished the documents to Vodafone, Airtel and Idea, just stopping short of revoking their license as that would result in significant consumer inconvenience.
