The competition between telecom giants is getting intense day by day. Each network provider is offering lucrative offers to customers, in a bid to woo them. However, in this process, they have resorted to some violations too, for which HEAVY PENALTIES are imposed.
Yes, the sufferers of this penalty are none other than Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, Jio’s rivals. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has suggested a joint penalty of 3,050 crores on them because they have not given proper interconnection points to Jio, thereby violating the rules of the Telcos’ act. Wondering what these interconnect points are? Well, these are points that are needed for making voice calls from one network to the other i.e. Voice calls made from Jio to Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
It seems this was a strategy to beat Jio in the competition, but it is against public interests. Obviously, people wouldn’t prefer Jio if they aren’t able to make calls to other networks.
On Friday evening, a strong letter was issued by TRAI to Department of Telecom suggesting strict action against these 3 network providers. Since they have violated the license norms, revocation of licenses was an apt action, but just because customers would suffer due to that, imposing penalty seems fine.
In the letter TRAI said
“It is evident that Bharti Airtel is in non-compliance of the terms and conditions of license and denial of interconnection to RJIL (Reliance Jio) appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer. The act of Bharti Airtel is against public interest “
Further it added;
“Non-compliance of terms and conditions of the license warrants recommendations for the revocation of the license. However, the Authority is mindful of the fact that revocation of license will entail significant consumer inconvenience and therefore in view of the larger public interest involved, the Authority recommends a penal action,”
These 3 carriers might have to pay penalties as mentioned below!
Airtel – Penalty of 50 crores per circle!
Airtel has 21 circles (Except Jammu and Kashmir) and so, the total penalty that Airtel has to pay is 1050 crores.
Vodafone- Penalty of 50 crores per circle!
Just like Airtel, even Vodafone has to pay a penalty of 50 crores per circle, which amounts to 1050 crores again.
Idea- Penalty of 50 crores per circle !
Idea has 19 circles and it has to pay a penalty of 50 crores per circle, which means the total amount is 950 crores.
The total penalty which these 3 carriers have to give is 3050 crores (1050 crores + 1050 crores + 950 crores)
Although TRAI doesn’t have the authority of imposing the penalty, it can definitely make recommendations so as to regulate the telecom companies as per the norms. Final decision lies with the Telecom Ministry; let us see what happens.
We agree that the competition is intense, but this doesn’t give them an opportunity to violate terms like this. What do you think about this matter? Do share in our comments section below.
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