TRAI will go by the book to decide interconnect issue, says Chairman

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday said it would this week come out with its view on the spat between Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) and incumbent players such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.

While RJio had complained against other telecom service providers saying its calls were not getting through because these companies were not providing points of interconnection (PoI), the incumbents said that the ‘free’ calls provided by RJio were the reason for traffic congestion and asymmetry due to which they were bearing higher costs.

The incumbent operators said RJio’s tariff rates were non-compliant and discriminatory, after which TRAI had intervened to ensure compliance of the terms and conditions of the license relating to interconnection and the provisions of the standards of quality of service (QoS) in line with the Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009.

“We examined the issue and sought Reliance Jio’s response, which we have received. We will be coming out with a final view on the complaint during this week,” RS Sharma, Chairman, TRAI, told BusinessLine.

Sharma, however, did not say whether TRAI would take any action against the incumbent operators for not speeding up RJio’s interconnection, noting: “Ultimately TRAI has to take a view according to the law, as per legal position, on such issues.”

After RJio’s launch on September 5, TRAI held a meeting on September 9 and it was conveyed to the incumbent operators that they needed to ensure that consumers do not suffer because of the inadequacy of POIs.

On September 19, it inter alia asked these operators to furnish information on traffic on POIs with RJio during busy hours, in a prescribed format. Finally, TRAI issued a direction on October 7 to protect consumer interests and asked all operators to furnish compliance reports by October 17.

Asked if the lucrative 700MHz spectrum did not get any bids in the recently concluded auctions because of its high reserve price (₹11,475 crore per unit on pan-India basis), and whether the pricing would be revisited, Sharma said: “It is for the government to take a decision as to what they want to do next.” He added: “Let the government make a reference to us, after which we will consult all stakeholders.”

Sharma said that for the earlier pricing structure, too, TRAI had followed a due process of consultation with all stakeholders and did due diligence before arriving at a pricing structure, which was handed over the government and approved by the Cabinet. “If the government asks us in future, we will do the same thing again. As of now, there is no request from the government,” he added.

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