Reliance Jio Penalty Case: TRAI To Reply To Dot This Month
Idea, Vodafone and Airtel had denied call connectivity to new entrant Reliance Jio. The penalty of INR 3,050 crore has been sought out on these three companies as they had violated license norms. This action of these three companies was against public interest and anti-consumer. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will send clarification on this penalty to Telecom Ministry this month. TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma had commented that authority had not written to them yet but soon will write to them. Authority will certainly give the response this month.
There is a dispute between incumbent operators and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio last year on the issue concerning call connectivity. Jio had raised the issue on the suffering of customers due to call failures as sufficient interconnect capacity are not given by incumbent operators. The newcomer is in turn charged of unleashing the “tsunami” of free traffic by operators on their network.
TRAI
In October 2016, it had been recommended by the TRAI to impose the total penalty of INR 3050 crores on the trio for denial of interconnectivity to the new entrant in the market. Interconnection makes the mobile services to run smoothly. This denial of interconnectivity led to the deterioration in the service quality. According to Trai’s recommendation, the calculated amount of penalty for Vodafone and Airtel is about INR 1,050 crore while the amount for Idea Cellular is considered to be INR 950 crores. On the basis of INR 50 crores each for 21 for the 22 circles (LSA) of Vodafone (except J & K) and Airtel this amount has been taken out. The operator provides the services at 19 circles and penalty of INR 50 crore each for these circles has recommended by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Telecom Department 
On April 5 it was given in written to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India by Telecom Department for the asking to give “reconsidered opinion” on the issue concerning the penalty along with outlining the provisions and basis of law under which regulator had recommended the said amount. DOT has been asked by Telecom Commission from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on seeking clarification on nearly a dozen points comprising whether the three incumbent operators would get stipulated 90 day period for providing the point of interconnection to the newcomer. The resources recognisable with the subject said that DOT had asked the TRAI to share the details concerning the number of subscribers obtained by Reliance Jio during its testing stage.
