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