Airtel’s Sunil Mittal says points of interconnect have been issued to Reliance Jio, sufficient to service 32 million customers

After Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said the real intent of incumbent telecom players behind providing Points of Interconnet (POIs) was missing, Airtel’s Sunil Bharti Mittal met TRAI chief RS Sharma and clarified on the issue.

In his meeting with Sharma, Mittal said the process of rolling out POIs is going on and should be resolved in a week’s time.

"PIOs (points of inter-connect) have already been issued and more points of inter-connect are being provided... 2,100 POIs have already been given and a demand note for another 1,000 POIs went out yesterday. So, the process is going on," said Mittal.

"Give it a few days... there are testing processes, demand notes are sent, payments are made... things are going on,” said Mittal.

He claimed that the POIs that are being given or have already been given are sufficient to service 25-32 million customers. Mittal, however, declined to comment on the details of the meeting with Sharma.

Asked if he raised the issue of alleged predatory pricing by the new entrant, he replied: "I did not raise it."

On escalation of war of words in the telecom sector, the Bharti chief felt that it has been de-escalated as "everyone is talking to everyone".
"More meetings are going on. As far as Mukesh Ambani and I are concerned, we meet very regularly," he added.

Playing down the charges by Reliance Jio that incumbent operators were refusing mobile number portability, Mittal said: "The portability issue pertains to 60-70 cases. I don't know what is causing the delay or the reason, 60-70 applications pertaining to portability will be resolved."

Responding to another query on competitive pressure from Reliance Jio's offer of free voice calls, Mittal said his teams will respond appropriately.