Jio connectivity woes: TRAI to impose Rs 3,050 crore penalty on Airtel, Vodafone, Idea

In a turn of event, the telecom regulatory body TRAI has proposed a fine of Rs 3,050 crores penalty on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea for allegedly denying interconnectivity to newcomer Reliance Jio. The move came in after Jio accused the networks as the reason for their call failures.

According to the recommendation, the penalty for Airtel and Vodafone would be Rs 1,050 crore each, while Idea Cellular will pay Rs 950 crore. Due to “significant consumer inconvenience,” the regulatory denied canceling the licenses of the networks.

According to an earlier statement, Jio had alleged that over 12 crore calls failed daily between Jio and the networks of Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea whereas the rule is that not more than five calls in 1,000 should fail due to network congestion. “ This is a breach of license conditions by the incumbent operators and severely impacts customer interests. This is against zero call failures on the Jio network,” the statement further added.

Jio has been repeatedly raising the issue of insufficient POIs as anti-competitive aimed at hindering the entry of a new operator and expects strict and urgent action on the matter.