Airtel to approach Trai to clear confusion over the proposed Rs 1,000 cr penalty

Image: Reuters

  27 Oct 2016 , 17:57

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel today said that it will approach government and telecom regulator Trai to clear the “confusion” that led to proposed penalty of over Rs 1,000 crore on it for not providing interconnection facility to Reliance JIO Infocomm.

“We are aware of proposed penalty. We believe there is confusion here. We will find way to go back to Trai and DoT. We are very confident that government will take a very objective position in the Herculean efforts we have put to resolve this issue,” Bharti Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal said during analyst call today.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended the Department of Telecom to slap total penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for not resolving interconnection issue with Reliance Jio despite its direction that led to high call failure on latter’s network.

“It is part of our regulatory obligation that we provide connect. At the end of the day it is our job to fight in the market and serve customers better. So this is a non-issue,” Vittal said. He said that Jio announced on 31 August, that they would launch services on 5 September.

“There is lot of augmentation that we have done on points of interconnect. We have never seen that kind of augmentation that we have ever done in the past,” Vittal said. He said that the interconnection ports that Airtel has provided per million of customers is more that 2.5 times than of any other operator in India.

“The regulation allows you 90 days to all these augmentation. We have done it literally in 5 weeks,” Vittal said.

Talking about Airtel strategy to counter Reliance Jio’s free 4G mobile service, Vittal said that it is very difficult to offer free service in response but company will look at offering more bundled service like Jio is offering to counter threat from it.

“We believe that when something is free there is only way to compete is to go and give it for free. It is very difficult. In that sense we are watching that space. Free stuff also has impact on quality of network. We are keeping track on that,” Vittal said.

PTI

Disclaimer: Reliance Jio is owned by Reliance Industries, who also own Network18, the publisher of Firstpost and tech2.

TRAI fines Airtel, Vodafone, Idea for denial of interconnection to Jio

  22 Oct 2016 , 11:09

The Indian telecom regulator on Friday slapped heavy penalties on three telecom players — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular — for not providing sufficient points of interconnections (PoI) to Reliance Jio.

It also said the action of the three operators showed “ulterior motive to stifle competition”.

In three similar letters to the three players, the watchdog — Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) — said it has recommended a penal action of Rs 50 crore per licence service area (LSA) (except Jammu & Kashmir) where PoI congestion exceeded the allowable limit of 0.5 per cent as reported by Airtel/Vodafone/Idea Cellular through emails in September 23.

In the case of Airtel and Vodafone, the fines imposed were for 21 LSAs, amounting to Rs 1050 crore each while in the case of Idea, the fine was Rs 950 crore for

Vodafone will make incoming calls on national roaming free of charge from Diwali

  21 Oct 2016 , 17:35

To counter threat from Reliance Jio free phone call offer, telecom operator Vodafone India on Friday free incoming calls while roaming nationally for all its customers from Diwali. “As part of our ongoing 200 million customer celebration, providing free incoming on national roaming will ensure that our customers do not think twice while traveling out of town,” Vodafone India, Director – Commercial, Sandeep Kataria said in a statement.

Starting this Diwali, all Vodafone India customers travelling anywhere in the country can continue to talk worry free without having to cut short their conversations, the statement said. “Even though outgoing charges while roaming had become comparable to home charges, consumer research has shown that incoming charges while roaming have been a hindrance to worry free usage,” Kataria said.

The new entrant Reliance Jio is offering free voice telephony across the country, including outgoing calls as well which is a big challenge for the entrenched players who derive a bulk of their revenue from the voice business. State-run BSNL has been offering free incoming call during roaming since June 15, 2015. At present, most of the telecom operators charge a tariff for providing free incoming calls during roaming.

PTI

Airtel offering 10GB of 4G data at Rs 259 for new mobile purchases

Image: Reuters

By tech2 News Staff /  19 Oct 2016 , 17:54

Airtel has announced that it will be offering 10GB of 4G/3G data on a recharge of Rs 259. The standard pack offers 1GB data and users who buy a new 4G handset get an extra 9GB through the My Airtel app.

While that sounds vague, Airtel has clarified that the offer is valid on all newly bought 4G mobile phones and will not work on handsets that are already being used.

The offer can be availed within 30 days of purchase of the handset The data will be valid for 28 days and users can avail a maximum of 3 recharges within 90 days.

Ajai Puri, Director-Market Operations, Bharti Airtel, said, “We are proud to have pioneered 4G network for users in India. This invitational offer has been designed for our data savvy customers who can now experience high speed broadband on Airtel’s 4G network with their new devices.”

The offer was introduced in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh last week and now it will be available across India in all 18 circles as well as valid on all brands of 4G handsets.

In non-4G circles, 3G data will be available to customers with their 4G devices.

This sounds like yet another move to counter Reliance Jio’s highly competitive rates.