TRAI imposes huge fine for ‘blocking’ Jio

New Delhi, October 21

The Indian telecom regulator on Friday slapped a cumulative penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on three telecom players — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular — for not providing sufficient points of interconnections (PoI) to Reliance Jio.

It also said the action of the three operators showed “ulterior motive to stifle competition”. In letters to the three players, the watchdog — Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) — said it had recommended a penal action of Rs 50 crore per licence service area (LSA) (except Jammu & Kashmir) where PoI congestion exceeded the allowable limit of 0.5 per cent as reported by Airtel/Vodafone/Idea Cellular through emails on September 23.

In the case of Airtel and Vodafone, the fines imposed were for 21 LSAs, amounting to Rs 1,050 crore each, while in the case of Idea, the fine was Rs 950 crore for 19 LSAs.

The regulator had received a letter from Reliance Jio on July 14, stating the incumbent players were not providing it with sufficient E1s (interconnect points, with technical parameters).

Reliance Jio claimed its customers were facing 75 per cent call failures on the three networks due to insufficient interconnection facility provided by the incumbent operators. Under the service quality norms, not more than five out of 1,000 calls should fail at the point of interconnect.

After exchanging several communications with the three operators, the TRAI arrived at the decision that each of them has been non-compliant to provide anough PoI between them and Reliance Jio.

The regulator said the incumbent operators were in “non-compliance of the terms and conditions of licence and denial of interconnection to Reliance Jio appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer”. It defined the act of the incumbent players as against public interest. It said non-compliance of terms and conditions of licence warranted recommendations for the revocation of licence.

“However, the authority is mindful of the fact that revocation of the licence will entail significant consumer inconvenience,” it said. — Agencies