TRAI Calls For Another Meeting As Incumbents Allege Violation of Norms By Reliance Jio

India’s telecom regulator has called for yet another meeting with operators after some of the incumbent players wrote to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, alleging violation of tariff norms by the latest entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

“Some of the telecom companies had sought a meeting with me to discuss issues with a tariff order. They allege that one operator is violating the tariff order,’’ TRAI Chairman RS Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The date of the meeting has not yet finalised but it is likely to be held on September 30 or October 3, Sharma added.

On the issue of call failures at points of interconnection (PoIs), the TRAI chairman said notices will soon be issued to telecom companies asking them to explain call failures at PoIs exceeding regulatory norms. According to current guidelines, not more than 0.5 percent of calls can fail at points of interconnection. Sharma did not elaborate on which companies could receive notices.

Call failures at points of interconnection have become one of the main reasons for a war of words between incumbent telecom companies and Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio has maintained that call failures are the result of incumbents not providing enough PoIs while incumbents blame call failures on technical issues at Reliance Jio’s end.

The regulator had asked for data on call failures at points of interconnection between September 15-19. This data was to include how many calls were attempted, and how many failed at points of interconnection, in order to determine the level of congestion.