Airtel Vodafone and Idea fined Rs 3,050 crore for failing to provide interconnection to Reliance Jio

India’s top telcos including Airtel, Vodafone and Idea may require to cough up a combined fine of Rs 3,050 crore for failing to provide adequate interconnection points to Reliance Jio. As ruled by Trai, the telcos did this to stifle fair competition and consumers had suffered.
Trai has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to take action against each of the three carriers, saying that violation of licence norms warranted revocation of their permits.

While DoT would require deciding on the course of action, the violations if proven would make a big dent on the wallet of the telcos.

According to a letter by Trai put up on its website, "noncompliance of the terms and conditions of licence and denial of interconnection to RJIL (Reliance Jio) appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer. The act of Airtel is against public interest."
Trai has recommended a Rs 50-crore penalty for each of the country's 21 circles, except from Jammu and Kashmir, be levied on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, which adds up to Rs 1,050 crore for each operator. However, Idea Cellular would require to pay a penalty in its 19 circles, totalling Rs 950 crore.

The regulator said the telcos had also "effectively masked the actual position of congestion" at points of interconnect (PoIs) with Jio and therefore Trai was "constrained to accept the congestion data" given by Jio.

"We are continuously augmenting the PoIs provided to Reliance Jio and the pace of augmentation has been the fastest ever done by us," an Airtel spokesperson told The Economic Times. "Further, we are in full compliance of the requirements of grade of service sby Trai." Vodafone and Idea did not immediately respond to email queries seeking comment.

A senior executive at one operator said he was "appalled" by the recommendations. "We don't know what the DoT will decide, but would we take this lying down? No way," the executive said.

The telcos, in argument, has said that provision of PoIs was needed only once services were commercially launched. The competitors of Jio alleged that Trai's show-cause notices were issued prematurely, without waiting for the outcomes of PoI augmentation that was ongoing - allowed for 90 days as per Trai's 2005 order.

However, Trai rejected their arguments on the grounds that it had been continuously monitoring congestion and added that the telcos had failed to comply with the norms.