DCC backs Trai’s penalty on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea

The two companies were charged for not providing points of inter-connection (PoIs) to Reliance Jio in 2016 when it began operations.

“DCC has accepted Trai recommendation on penalty on Airtel, Vodafone Idea,” Aruna Sundararajan, the telecom secretary told a news conference. “It will send the same recommendation to the competent authority in government for their decision.”

Reliance Jio had complained to the Trai that over 75 per cent of calls on its network were failing as the other players were not releasing adequate PoIs.

The two major telecom operators are likely to challenge the decision with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal. 

“We have complete faith in the judicial process and the law of the land,” the said a Bharti Airtel statement. “We are extremely disappointed with the decision to impose penalty on the telecom operators on the matter pertaining the PoI. This is despite the fact that the total number of PoIs provided were more than sufficient for the projections provided on the number of customers.”

Vodafone Idea also said it would explore all options including legal to protect its interests. “This issue pertaining to points of interconnection has been examined by the DoT, various parliamentary and judicial authorities with no case for any default established,” it said in a statement. “From media reports its appears that even the DoT committee examining the Trai recommendations was not unanimous and in fact at least four committee members out of seven had differing views on the subject. Further, the jurisdiction to decide any interconnection dispute between two service providers lies exclusively with TDSAT.”

The Trai had in 2016 recommended a fine of Rs50 crore on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone respectively in 21 cricles and a similar amount on Idea Cellular (merged last year with Vodafone) in 19 circles.