DCC to impose penalty on Airtel, Vodafone Idea
The commission will seek Trai’s views on revising ₹3,050 cr penalty
NEW DELHI: The Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the apex decision-making body of the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), on Monday approved imposing penalty on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for not providing points of interconnection (PoIs) to Reliance Jio.
However, before imposing the penalty, the commission has decided to seek views of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on revising ₹3,050 crore penalty recommended by the sector regulator amid financial stress in the sector.
While the Digital Communications Commission approved imposing penalty on the companies, it disagreed with a proposal of one of the secretaries to fine Reliance Jio as it “too failed to deliver quality service to customers”.
“Digital Communications Commission has agreed to impose penalty on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea for not providing points of interconnection to Reliance Jio. However, the commission has decided to take Trai’s view on revising quantum of penalty in the backdrop of stress in the sector,” an official familiar with the matter told Press Trust of India.
Trai in October 2016 recommended imposing total penalty of ₹3,050 crore on Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea for allegedly denying interconnectivity to newcomer Reliance Jio. The penalty on Airtel and Vodafone works out to be about ₹1,050 crore each. In case of Idea it comes to about ₹950 crore. Since Vodafone and Idea have now merged their businesses, the new entity Vodafone Idea will have to bear the burden of both companies.
The regulator stopped short of recommending cancellation of their telecom licences saying it may lead to significant consumer inconvenience.
Trai’s recommendation came on a complaint by Reliance Jio that over 75% of calls on its network were failing as incumbents were not releasing sufficient number of PoIs.
“A secretary from a nodal ministry said the penalty should be apportioned and applied on Reliance Jio as well. His point was whether responsibility of providing quality of service by a primary licence holder be shifted on others? However, Digital Communications Commission members did not agree to the view of imposing penalty on Jio,” the official said.
The telecom secretary is the ex-officio chairperson of the Digital Communications Commission and the panel’s fulltime members include member (finance), member (production), member (services) and member (technology).
NITI Aayog chief executive officer, Department of Economic Affairs secretary, ministry of electronics and IT secretary and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion secretary are the part-time members of the body.
Shares of Vodafone Idea declined as much as 3.68% to close at ₹12.05 on the BSE. Shares of Bharti Airtel tumbled as much as 2.77% to close at ₹343.50 apiece on the BSE.
THE DCC DISAGREED WITH A PROPOSAL TO FINE RELIANCE J IO AS IT ‘TOO FAILED TO DELIVER QUALITY SERVICE TO CUSTOMERS’