Trai slaps penalty of Rs 3,150 crore on Airtel, Vodafone, Idea

People queue-up outside a store to buy Reliance Jio SIM cards in Ranchi on Sept 6, 2016. Photo: IANS

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday slapped heavy penalties on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for not providing sufficient points of interconnections (PoI) to Reliance Jio.

Trai recommended to the Department of Telecom (DoT) putting a penalty of 3,150 crores on Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular for not providing POIs to Reliance Jio, reported Aseem Manchanda.

TRAI recommends penalty of 3,150 crores on @airtelnews , Vodafone, Idea Cellular for not providing POIs to @reliancejio @ZeeBusiness

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— aseem manchanda (@aseemmanchanda) October 21, 2016

Trai recommends DoT a penalty of Rs 50 crore per LSA (license service area) on Airtel, Vodafone, Idea for PoI congestion above 0.5%.

TRAI recommends DoT a penalty of Rs 50 Crs per LSA on Airtel, Vodafone, Idea for PoI congestion above 0.5% . @ZeeBusiness @TRAI

— aseem manchanda (@aseemmanchanda) October 21, 2016

Trai to DoT further said that the denial of PoI to Reliance Jio by 3 companies has ulterior motives to stifle competition and is anti-consumer.

In the case of Airtel and Vodafone, the fines imposed were for 21 LSAs, amounting to Rs 1,050 crore each while in the case of Idea, the fine was Rs 950 crore for 19 LSAs.

The regulator had received a letter from Reliance Jio on July 14, stating that the incumbent players were not providing it with sufficient E1s (interconnect points, with technical parameters).

After exchanging several communications with the three operators, the TRAI arrived at the decision that each of them has been non-compliant to provide enough PoI between them and Reliance Jio.

The regulator also stated that the incumbent operators were in "non-complaince of the terms and conditions of licence and denial of interconnection to Reliance Jio appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer."

It defined the act of the incumbent players as against public interest.

It said non-compliance of terms and conditions of licence warrants recommendations for the revocation of licence.

"However, the Authority is mindful of the fact that revocation of the licence will entail significant consumer inconvenience and therefore in view of the larger public interest involved, the Authority recommends penal action..."

(With inputs from IANS)

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