DOT to hear telcos’ pleas against Trai’s ₹3,050-cr penalty
TRAI HAD PROPOSED THE PENALTY ON AIRTEL, IDEA AND VODAFONE FOR ALLEGEDLY DENYING SUFFICIENT POINTS OF INTERCONNECT TO JIO,
NEW DELHI: The telecom department will soon meet officials from Bharti Airtel Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd and Vodafone India Ltd to hear their pleas against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendation of a ₹3,050-crore cumulative penalty for allegedly denying sufficient points of interconnect to Reliance Jio, multiple people aware of the development said.
“We had asked the three operators to make their presentations by December 6. Idea and Airtel have requested us to defer the meeting. We will reply to them. Vodafone has not responded so we are assuming they will come (on December 6),” a senior official at the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) said, requesting anonymity.
“The department has asked us to come and make our case as to why the penalty is not valid,” an official at one of the telcos said on the condition of anonymity.
The firms did not respond to an emailed questionnaire seeking details of the development.
In October last year, the telecom regulator had recommended to the government that a penalty of ₹1,050 crore each be imposed on Airtel and Vodafone, and ₹950 crore on Idea, for allegedly denying points of interconnect to Jio.
Reliance Jio, which started operations in September last year, complained to Trai that a large number of calls on its network were failing as incumbent operators were not providing sufficient points of interconnect.
In February this year, the Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body at DOT, sought clarifications from the regulator about the basis for calculating the penalty and provisions of the law under which the penalty had been recommended.
Responding to this, the regulator in May wrote to the department defending its stand. Trai stated that the licence agreement mandated that the licensee will be responsible for maintaining quality of service as mandated by the licensor or Trai, and any violation is liable to be treated as breach of terms of the licence.
While non-compliance of terms and conditions of the licence warrant the revocation of the licence, Trai in May said it recommended a penalty as a revocation of licence would inconvenience consumers.
The regulator had then also reiterated that Reliance Jio had placed its demand with the three operators well in advance to ensure communication between subscribers of networks.
Denying sufficient points of interconnect was anti-consumer and aimed at stifling competition in the sector, Trai had said. Points of interconnect are used to connect two telecom operators’ networks to complete a phone call.