Airtel, Vodafone and Idea will definitely be penalised for 'choking' Jio PoIs, says TRAI

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rejected the telecom department's call to reconsider its recommendation of penalising Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular with a fine of Rs 3,050 crore for not providing adequate points of interconnect (PoIs) to Reliance Jio.

TRAI stressed that it has the adequate power required to suggest penal action on erring telcos keeping in mind the larger public interest.

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sent a letter to TRAI raising questions and objections against the penalty. In response, TRAI said that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea had willingly disobeyed the rules by denying PoIs in order to choke competition. This led to the quality of services being hampered, and ideally, should have led to the cancellation of licences.

"The authority considered the fact that revocation of the licence will entail significant consumer inconvenience and, therefore, recommended a penal action of Rs 50 crore per licence area where points of interconnect congestion exceeded the allowable limit of 0.5%. Clearly, penalty to a telecom service provider amounts much less in severity than revocation of its licence," TRAI said in its response.

DoT will now consider the response before taking a decision.

(Image source FirstPost)