Reliance Jio wins another fight – Airtel and Vodafone Idea may have to cough up ₹30.5 billion in fine

• The Department of Telecom has given its approval for a penalty to be levied on India’s biggest telecom giants – Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
• The duo lost a battle to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio.
• Jio had registered a case against Airtel and Vodafone Idea for having denied interconnection.

In another win for India’s fastest-growing telecom giant Reliance Jio, its competitors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone idea will have to pay a fine for denying interconnection to Mukesh Ambani’s Jio when it had entered the market in 2016.

The approval on the penalty was given by the Digital Communications Commission, Department of Telecom’s highest decision-making body. However, the panel has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to review its initial suggested penalty amount of ₹30.5 billion.

As the approval on the penalty came in, shares of both Airtel and Vodafone Idea fell by 2.6% and 3.8% respectively.

According to reports, Vodafone Idea and Airtel had both failed to comply with their agreements for interconnection with Reliance Jio because of which Jio users were unable to make calls to users from other networks.

Jio has been increasing its numbers in India. It currently has over 306.7 million users in India. Meanwhile, its competitors, who have a larger user base, continue to feel the pressure from Jio. Both Vodafone-Idea and Airtel lost consumers in March 2019 and their tally stands at 394.8 million and 325.1 million respectively. While Bharti Airtel lost 15.1 million consumers, Vodafone-Idea lost 14.5 million consumers in March.

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