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Vodafone Offers To Triple Points Of Interconnect With Reliance Jio

The company attributes the decision to Jio clarifying its commercial operational plans.

Customers talk on mobile phones outside a Vodafone India Ltd. store in New Delhi, India (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)  
Customers talk on mobile phones outside a Vodafone India Ltd. store in New Delhi, India (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)  

After Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India on Thursday became the third incumbent operator to increase points of interconnect (PoIs) with Reliance Jio. Vodafone will increase its connectivity with Jio to three times what it is providing at present, the operator said in a press release.

The decision follows Reliance Jio’s clarification on the commencement of their commercial operation, Vodafone added.

Points of Interconnect (PoIs) facilitate calls from consumers of one network to another.

Earlier, Airtel and Idea agreed to provide additional connectivity to Reliance Jio, after the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, called for a meeting between all four companies last Friday. Reliance Jio, which commercially launched its services on September 5, had been contending that its consumers are facing call drops since incumbent operators refused to provide additional points of interconnect.

“Vodafone is hopeful that all issues it has raised with TRAI and Jio will be duly considered and resolved at the earliest,” the company added in the press statement.

Both Idea and Airtel have also raised concerns over heavy asymmetry of traffic and asked the regulator to look into it. However, Reliance Jio has refuted the charges and said the voice traffic on its network is in keeping with industry trends.