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<ul><li>Reliance Jio is asking TRAI to either reduce or remove Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC). </li><li>TRAI had initially planned to remove IUC charges from January 1, 2020 under the Bill and Keep (BAK) regime. </li><li>Airtel and Vodafone Idea were against the move, citing huge costs involved in allowing incoming calls from the Jio network.</li></ul> Reliance Jio approached the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to either reduce or remove Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC). Currently, IUC is charged at 6 paise per minute by the operator on whose network the calls terminate. In October, Reliance Jio announced that it will start charging 6 paise per minute for calls that are made to other networks. This change was made on packs which promised complete free calling earlier. Jio-to-Jio calls however continued to remain free. At the time, Jio noted that this charge would be levied until TRAI removes IUC charges. TRAI had initially planned to remove IUC charges from January 1, 2020 under the Bill and Keep (BAK) regime. However, incumbent operators Airtel and Vodafone Idea were against the move, citing huge costs involved in allowing incoming calls from the Jio network. Last week, TRAI held an open discussion on “Review of Interconnection Usage Charges”. Jio’s representative at the discussion held that since voice calling symmetry has been achieved between Jio and the incumbent operators, there was no need to levy IUC charges anymore. The company <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/jio-urges-trai-for-removal-or-reduction-of-iuc-charges-4645571.html">held</a> that the BAK regime should be implemented as planned from January 1, 2020. The implementation of this regime would bring down IUC charges to zero. Airtel and Vodafone Idea opposed this argument and demanded that IUC charges of 6 paise per minute should be levied for the next three years at least. Reliance Jio alleged that Airtel and Vodafone Idea were diverting their incoming voice call traffic to 2G or 3G networks to inflate their voice call costs. This could hold some merit as we’ve experienced that incoming voice calls on Airtel’s network are routed via 2G, which puts the Jio 4G network on pause temporarily even on a compatible dual 4G VoLTE smartphone. Airtel however denied these allegations. Vodafone Idea, on its part, did not expressly deny this and stated that subscribers were free to port out of their network. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/mukesh-ambanis-jio-faces-backlash-for-tariff-increase/articleshow/71573757.cms">Reliance Jio is paying the price for being the ‘second SIM’ of choice</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/reliance-jio-airtel-and-vodafone-idea-may-raise-tariff-soon/articleshow/71757089.cms">Whether you use Jio, Airtel, Vodafone-Idea, get ready to pay more for mobile services— sooner than later</a>

Reliance Jio asks TRAI to either reduce or remove IUC charges

New Delhi, Dec 17 () In a big boost to Airtel and other old telcos, regulator Trai on Tuesday deferred by one year the scrapping of the charge paid by mobile phone users for calls made to rival networks and initiated talks to prescribe minimum or floor price for call and data, effectively ending free call regime.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which are staring at a liability of thousands of crore in unpaid past statutory dues following a Supreme Court ruling, had been through their association pitching with the government for fixing of a floor rate for calls and data. 
Their association had also been lobbying for extending the 6 paise per minute interconnect usage charge (IUC).
On Tuesday, Trai announced that telecom operators will continue to pay 6 paise per minute for every outgoing call made to their competitors' network till December 31, 2020. These charges are proposed to become zero from January 1, 2021.
Telecom industry body COAI sees it as a relief for the debt-ridden sector and asserts that continuing with six paise mobile call termination charge will not have any impact on consumers as operators have already absorbed this charge in their recently increased mobile call and data rates.
"For wireless to wireless domestic calls, termination charge would continue to remain as Re 0.06 (paise six only) per minute up to December 31, 2020," Trai said.
Within hours of IUC announcement, TRAI released a consultation paper to fix minimum or floor rates for mobile phone calls and data, a move that will effectively end the regime of free calling and dirt cheap data.
The telecom call and data rates are at present under forbearance or not regulated. However, private telecom operators unanimously approached the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to fix minimum price for mobile internet rates.
The outcome is likely to lead to further hike in mobile call and data cost as industry wants average revenue per user to reach Rs 300 per month from about Rs 125 at present over period of two years - better revenue realisation per user will offer a much needed breather to stressed telecom industry where debt levels have soared to Rs 7.8 lakh crore.
Trai in the "Consultation Paper on Tariff Issues of Telecom Services" said that there have been minor adjustments by the telecom service providers (TSPs) to their tariff offerings since the initial announcement.
"It is to be seen whether further readjustments in tariffs will be done in view of the high level of competition in the market. In such a scenario, where the TSPs have recently announced a substantial hike in tariffs, it needs to be discussed whether there is still a need for any regulatory intervention," Trai said.
The development comes following the three private telecom operators, which account for 90 per cent market share, raising mobile call and internet rates by up to 50 per cent from December 3 onwards. This had effectively marked the first hike in the five years in the country's telecom sector that had been engaged in a brutal tariff war -- voice calls had become almost free in 2016 and a steep 95 per cent fall had been seen in data prices (to Rs 11.78 per GB at present from Rs 269 per GB in 2014).
While telecom operators requested for minimum price for mobile data only, the regulator has also sought public comments on fixing minimum price for phone calls by January 17 and counter comments by January 31. 
Rajan S Mathews, Director General of COAI welcomed Trai's move to initiate a consultation on floor pricing and said it will ensure that the telecom industry remains healthy and robust. The move will also provide confidence to investors to make available needed resources, he said.
"In our previous submission to Trai, we have highlighted that tariff correction is necessary for improving the financial health of the industry. The only option available is for the regulator to intervene and correct the anomalous pricing situation prevailing in the market place," Mathews said. PRS MBI ANZ MKJ

Trai's consultation on floor price, decision on IUC extension spells relief for Airtel, Voda

India’s top telcos are demanding a cut in licence fee, spectrum usage charge (SUC) and Universal Service Obligation Fund levy so that they can come out of the financial stress that they are in. However, regarding the issue of interconnect charges (IUC), Indian telecom companies have come to a standstill with little chances of a consensus. While incumbent telcos like <keyword id="6354287" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bharti-Airtel">Bharti Airtel</keyword>, Vodafone India and <keyword id="6354924" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Idea-Cellular">Idea Cellular</keyword> have demanded that IUC be raised, debutant <keyword id="1543410" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-Jio-Infocomm">Reliance Jio Infocomm</keyword> has asked for it to be scrapped. The IUC is a fee that one telco has to pay to the other telco on whose network a call terminates. Presently, it stands at 14 paise per minute, considered to be around half of an incumbent carrier's cost per call. The reason why <keyword id="2003276" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jio">Jio</keyword> wants it scrapped is that it relies on free offers to earn the loyalty of customers ever since it was launched in September last year, and believes that IUC is a subsidy provided to incumbent carriers. If IUC is abolished, Jio would be befitted by reduction in its IUC payout, as it clearly has more outgoing calls to <keyword id="15491" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Airtel">Airtel</keyword>, Vodafone India and Idea. None of the telcos wish to change their stand regarding the issue, since incumbent telcos have also urged <keyword id="6356988" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="TRAI">TRAI</keyword> to create a floor price for voice and data services, which Jio has opposed saying that it won’t ever charge for voice services for life. If there is a floor price, Jio would have to end its free services, leading to a probability of customers moving back to their original carriers, which Jio wishes to avoid.

IUC becomes bone of contention between incumbent telcos and Jio

Once arch rivals, Vodafone, Bharati <keyword id="15491" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Airtel">Airtel</keyword> and Idea Cellular have now teamed up against <keyword id="2003276" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jio">Jio</keyword> and complained to the government that latter’s predatory pricing has been eating up in their revenues. To make sure, the government pays heed to their outrage, the three telecom operators claimed their incompetence to invest in future technology and create jobs. The top players in the industry had met a government panel, which aims to analyse the losses in the industry. <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword> backed Jio has been accused of providing cellular services at ‘too low’ a cost, which is responsible for decline in the revenue generation. According to a <keyword id="6356641" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="times-of-india">Times of India</keyword> report, the worst affected Airtel, which has seen a severe contraction in profitability post the aggressive launch of services by Jio in September last year, said that the return on capital employed (ROCE) had dropped down to "perilously lower levels" and is "highly likely to be negative" if relief is not provided. Airtel said losses to the industry will also restrict the government's ability to earn from the sector. Its earnings will come down by Rs 10,000 crore. "Consolidation/ reduced investments will result in loss of direct/ indirect employment." The companies have sought to increase charge for terminating a call on their networks to be increased from the existing 14 paise per minute. "The IUC rate of 14 paise is lower than actual cost. In order to make this financially viable, it is critical that traffic between operators is symmetrical," Airtel told <keyword id="6371459" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="toi">TOI</keyword>. "IUC needs to be correctly determined to prevent predatory voice-pricing environment. Aggressive tariffs in voice and data have resulted in a scenario of pricing below cost with every operator," Idea told TOI, seeking the fixation of a floor price for voice and data prices. However Jio has refused to the allegations. It believes that lack of investments by them in new technologies and mounting debt are making the other rivals outrageous.

Airtel, Vodafone, Idea blame Jio for revenue losses

New Delhi, Jun 24 () Reliance Jio would play a key role in the development of the 5G ecosystem in India based on the market dynamics, Reliance Industries said in its latest annual report. On the issue of floor price for mobile services, the company noted that market dynamics have improved in the recent past as reflected by December tariff hikes by operators. The government has also expressed its intentions of conducting the next round of spectrum auctions during the fiscal year 2020-21, it said. "Jio with its 5G-ready network and extensive fiber assets, would play a key role in the development of the 5G ecosystem in India, based on market dynamics," the annual report stated. In his letter to shareholders, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that there are still millions of 2G phone users, who cannot use internet, highlighting urgent need for India to transition fully from 2G to the 4G era and beyond, and underlining the opportunity Jio has in such transformation. "Over the past two years, JioPhone has successfully transitioned approximately 100 million erstwhile feature phone (2G) users to the 4G network," he said. Ambani noted that Jio's success in building technology specifically for India and its ability to proliferate across the country has attracted global technology leaders – Facebook and Microsoft - to forge partnerships with it. Reliance Jio continues to add subscribers at a rate unprecedented in the telecom world with 387.5 million mobile data subscribers (as of March 31, 2020), Ambani said. Describing Jio as a key catalyst in creating the broadband data market in India, he said it is now the number one mobile telecom operator in the country by both adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and subscribers. Reliance Jio is rolling out its state-of-the-art wireline services across homes and enterprises, he said adding all this will help place a strong foundation for offering platform-based digital services. According to the report, Jio connected about one million homes with JioFiber services until March 2020. Ambani further said that rollout of the digital commerce initiative will open up further growth opportunities for the organised retail business, leveraging the strength of consumer and digital platforms. "Reliance Retail and WhatsApp have entered into a commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate Reliance Retail's Digital Commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp," he said. Further, Jio said that market dynamics have improved in the recent past, as reflected by tariff hikes in December 2019, where all the operators revised their tariff plans upwards by up to 40 per cent. "During the year, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also initiated consultation process on feasibility of establishing a floor price for mobility services in the country," it said, adding that Jio would continue to actively engage with the regulator and industry stakeholders to drive growth for all. On the issue of call connect charges, where interconnect usage charge (IUC) would be reduced to zero with effect from January 1, 2021, Jio said it accordingly introduced a charge of 6 paise/minute on all off-net outgoing voice minutes to pass through the impact of change in regulatory stance on IUC in October 2019. "This has led to a significant improvement in voice traffic mix as misusers of free voice services have left the network and Jio is now a net receiver of IUC. Jio continues to believe that transition to the BAK (Bill and Keep) regime will hasten the adoption of more efficient technologies like VoLTE, which have negligible cost for carrying and servicing essential voice services," RIL said. In the recent months, Reliance Industries has secured over Rs 1.15 lakh crore from global tech investors including Facebook by selling a tad less than a quarter of its digital business and raised Rs 53,124 crore by selling shares to existing investors in the past days. Sale of stake in Jio Platforms raised Rs 1,15,693.95 crore from marquee names including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton and PIF since April 22, 2020. MBI ANS ANS

Jio poised to play key role in development of 5G ecosystem in India: RIL

Cellular operators body COAI today termed <keyword id="6356988" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="TRAI">TRAI</keyword>'s consultation paper on call connect charges as "unfair on incumbent operators", and questioned the regulator's urgency in initiating the process of interconnect review, which the association claimed "favours new entrants". 
 "We are unable to understand what is the hurry. Usually, there is a 2-3 years timeframe (for the review) but it has only been one year," COAI (<keyword id="105151" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cellular-Operators-Association-of-India">Cellular Operators Association of India</keyword>) director general <keyword id="133375" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajan-Mathews">Rajan Mathews</keyword> told . 
 
On Friday, TRAI started the review of interconnection charges -- paid by one telecom operator to another for connecting phone calls -- against the backdrop of 4G and Internet telephony changing the way consumers communicate. 
 
At present, the termination charges for a mobile to mobile local and national long distance call is pegged at 14 paise per minute while the termination charges for international incoming call to wireless and wireline stands at 53 paise per minute. 
 Telecom <keyword id="1068171" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Regulatory-Authority-of-India">Regulatory Authority of India</keyword> (TRAI) has sought public view on how domestic termination charges should be computed -- cost based or Bill and Keep (BAK) -- for maximisation of consumer welfare, adoption of more efficient technologies and growth of the telecom sector in the country. 
 
In BAK method, each telecom operator bills its own subscribers for outgoing traffic that it sends to other interconnecting network and keeps the revenue received from its subscribers. 
 
"TRAI is trying to introduce 'Bill and Keep' method, and the move would mean that new operators would not have to pass on payment to existing operators, while the latter will have to 'incur costs'," Mathews said. 
 
"It is unfair to the incumbent operators and appears to favour new entrants. This is a misguided effort from TRAI that will help new entrants, at the cost of the incumbent...We are extremely disturbed by this, this further tilts the level playing field," he alleged. 
 
Stating that no country with calling party pays regime has zero termination charges, he pointed out that the previous TRAI move on termination rates for calls involving mobile and landlines had already been challenged in the court. 
 
"The IUC (Interconnection Usage Charges) paper requires us to give answers which are the context of the litigation, and therefore subjudice," Mathews said. 
 
The TRAI paper also seeks views on how charges would be impacted as telecom operators move to Internet Protocol-based networks. 
The regulator said that essentially, with the new arrivals viz voice over LTE (VoLTE) and internet telephony, any attempt to set uniform domestic termination charges on cost basis would be a challenging task. 
 
The last date for submission of IUC comments is September 5 and that for counter-comments is September 19, 2016. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

COAI calls TRAI's consultation paper on call connect charges 'unfair'

<keyword id="6355199" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Industries">Reliance Industries</keyword> Chairman <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>, during the launch of <keyword id="6354504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-Jio">Reliance Jio</keyword> in his annual general meeting, had pushed other telecom operators to provide interconnect points after he announced free calls from Jio to any other server. 
 But, the incumbent carriers are in no mood to do so. In a letter to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), India’s top telecom operators have said they can’t oblige to Ambani-led Reliance <keyword id="1699939" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jio-Infocomm">Jio Infocomm</keyword>'s requests for interconnection points. 
 
The carriers have said they do not have the network and the financial resources to adjust huge traffic coming in from Reliance Jio. 
 "Unloading tsunamis of asymmetric incoming voice traffic from a (potential) 100 million Reliance Jio customers can lead to the weighted average voice realisation of existing operators plunging from 30-40 paise per voice minute to 22-25 paise per voice minute or even lower," said <keyword id="105151" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cellular-Operators-Association-of-India">Cellular Operators Association of India</keyword> (COAI) in its letter to Nripendra Misra, principal secretary at PMO, which was assessed by ET. 
 
Furthermore, the association has warned the present telecom companies will go into liquidation long before this reduced weighted average voice realisation is reached. 
 
"Reliance Jio may well make up some part of this massive voice cross-subsidy by way of data revenue realisations, by way of customer acquisitions/churn, but it becomes abundantly clear that the overwhelming burden of this free lunch is sought to be passed on to rival operators through tariff manipulations, which exploit the Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC) regime, and offload tsunamis of asymmetric voice traffic that will choke and financially destroy competition," Rajan Mathews, director general of the COAI, told ET. 
 
The COAI has stated the incoming-to-outgoing traffic ratio in India is normally 1:1, but Jio's beta tests had tended to veer it towards an asymmetric 10:1, and this would undoubtedly lead it to a 15:1ratio once its (potential) 100 million subscribers grow accustomed to unlimited free voice service. 
 
"The voice services for Jio are experiencing high congestion. Since you are a high-value customer, this will impact your business," Idea told dealers in a presentation. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Telecom operators escalate war with Reliance Jio; say they are not obliged to give interconnection points

India’s top telecom operators have targeted <keyword id="6354504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-Jio">Reliance Jio</keyword> Infocomm, the upcoming telecom leg from Reliance Industries Limited. The operators have asked the telecom department (DoT) to ask RIL to take back the Jio connections that it has provided to 1.5 million users under the name of test connections, since it is breaking the law by offering full-fledged services to them before its launch. 
 
In a letter written to Telecom Secretary JS Deepak, telecom lobby group Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that as per present licence conditions, testing or trials of free voice and data services is not allowed for such large numbers, and Jio was instead offering full fledged services to its users. 
 "This is no test. This is the provisioning of full-blown and full-fledged services masquerading as tests, which bypass regulations and can potentially game policy features like the IUC (interconnection usage charge) regime, non-predatory pricing, fair competition etc," said the letter written by Rajan Mathews, director general of COAI, of which Jio is also a member along with <keyword id="15491" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Airtel">Airtel</keyword>, <keyword id="15492" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vodafone">Vodafone</keyword> and <keyword id="41511" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="idea">Idea</keyword>. 
 
RIL is expected to launch Jio's commercial services this month, and it has officially said that its free voice and data services will be upgraded into full-blown commercial services soon. 
 Consumers buying <keyword id="3222534" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-LYF">Reliance LYF</keyword> phones and 14 Samsung phones are being offered three months of free unlimited data and voice calls from Jio. 
 
<a href="https://www.whatsuplife.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/3038b-chairman-mukesh-ambani.jpg">Image source</a>

Reliance Jio is yet to be launched, but is already breaking rules

<ul><li>Last week, Jio increased its calling tariffs by 6 paise per minute. </li><li>India Ratings says that the industry’s average revenue per user (ARPU) will go up by 15-18% after Jio’s price hike. </li><li>Jio’s data tariffs are 25-30% cheaper than that of Airtel and Voda-Idea. </li><li>Jio is a net payer of IUC charges, whereas Voda-Idea and Airtel are net-receivers of IUC receipts--as calls originate from Jio and land on other networks. </li></ul> It had to happen one day. But Reliance Jio’s move to increase tariffs came sooner than expected. Even as Jio, Vodafone Idea and Airtel are teasing each other over it on social media, and thousands are trolling Mukesh Ambani for ‘breaking his free’ promise---it is good news for the industry. At least that is what India Ratings believes. Jio charging its customers 6 paise per minute on its ‘free’ calling package—can help increase the rising margins of the industry. The sector’s average revenue per user will go up by ₹9, and in general increase by 15-18% according to the rating agency. Like Jio says in its tweet, this amount will be going to Vodafone Idea and Airtel as Jio can no longer get away without paying telecom department’s mandatory inter-connection (IUC) charges. This is the charge paid to a network which is receiving calls, by the network from where a call originates. In an ideal situation, the amount all networks pay each other should balance out—considering their subscriber number is around the same. However, that is not to be. Jio has the most to lose. The offnet minutes of usage is 64% for Jio, while it is at 41% for Voda-Idea and 45% for Airtel. “Also, of the total offnet voice traffic, net incoming minutes as a proportion of total offnet minutes stands at negative 29% for R-Jio whereas the same is 9% and 19% for Airtel and Voda-Idea respectively, implying that network voice traffic imbalance is significantly higher for R-Jio compared with peers. Hence, R-Jio remains a net-payer of IUC expenses, whereas Voda-Idea and Airtel are net-receivers of IUC receipts,” says India Ratings. Basically, calls originate from Jio and land on other networks. Jio users continue to keep other network SIMs It means that more people are using Jio SIMs for its cheap data plans, and also for making the ‘free’ calls it offers. It makes sense as Jio’s data tariffs are 25-30% cheaper than that of Airtel and Voda-Idea. Yet, users have not given up their basic SIMs which belonged to other networks, and continue to exist. These numbers are ‘primary’ phone numbers which are key to their bank accounts and other necessary identifications. And, few seem to believe that cheap tariff party will not continue to exist. All mixed with the ease of owning multiple SIMs have played against Jio. Had subscribers chosen to keep only Jio connections and get rid of others, they would have ported to it. Looks like not many have done that.

Reliance Jio is paying the price for being the ‘second SIM’ of choice

New Delhi, Feb 12 () The Competition Commission has dismissed a complaint against Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Airtel and Sify Technologies which alleged that they were charging higher rates for overseas inbound calls as compared to the ceiling fixed by telecom regulator Trai. The order came on a complaint filed by Canada-based Teleclub (Alberta Ltd), which is an international telecom carrier. The complainant alleged that the Indian telecom operators together decided to charge standard rate of 0.0053 USD for inbound calls terminating on their network in India, instead of the rates fixed by Trai. As per IUC Regulations, 2018, the telecom regulator prescribes international termination charges (ITC) of Rs 0.30 per minute for international incoming calls to wireline and wireless networks, it said. It added that the telecom operators further increased the rate of inbound calls to 0.0115 USD per minute after another meeting in February 2018. Besides, they allegedly harassed the firm by choking its ports used for sending traffic. Subsequently, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) sought the opinion of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the matter. CCI, from the submission of Trai, noted that as per Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) Regulations, the regulator has prescribed the ITC for international incoming calls but international settlement charge (ISC) is not regulated under the norms and has to be decided based on mutual negotiations between the Indian long distance operators and foreign service providers. The complainant has "mistaken International Termination Charges i.e. ITC as International Settlement Charge i.e. ISC", CCI noted. CCI, while disposing of the complaint, said "the Commission has prima facie not found any evidence to indicate that OPs have fixed the rates through any concerted action amongst themselves, so as to warrant an investigation." SRS ABM

CCI dismisses complaint of unfair biz practices against Voda Idea, Jio, Airtel

New Delhi, Nov 15 () Reliance Jio on Friday said that delaying the implementation of zero call connect charges beyond January 2020 will hurt affordability of telecom services in a sector where users have benefited from free voice calls.
 Reliance Jio Director Mahendra Nahata said that the ratio of incoming and outgoing call is now at par with each other and traffic asymmetry can, therefore, no longer be the reason to delay implementation of Bill and Keep (BAK) regime (that is zero mobile termination charge from January 1, 2020).
 Traffic symmetry indicates that telecom operator will not have any outstanding balance of interconnect usage charges (IUC) against other networks.
 Speaking at Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) open house on IUC issue, Nahata said Airtel had expanded 4G network and Vodafone Idea too is talking about expanding their 4G network.
 "We are not considering any profit or loss, but opposing it on the basis of principle. Criticising the decision of government or regulatory authorities from a distant location is beyond our understanding. Therefore, please take a decision after due diligence on all the points that we have raised," he said.
 Nahata questioned data being shown by telecom operators and alleged that the subscriber traffic is being diverted to 2G, 3G network to show cost of voice is high.
 Nahata said that in case Trai does not favour implementation of BAK regime from January 2020 then at least interconnect usage charges currently at 6 paise should be brought down.
 "When you had implemented 6 paise charge, 4G traffic was one per cent. Today that traffic is much higher so the costs must have come down," he said.
 A Vodafone Idea official said that consumers today have the option of moving to other networks through mobile number portability (MNP).
 "Today customers have option of MNP and they can move to other network. It is wrong to say that any operator is holding back customers on 2G network," the official said, demanding that the mobile call termination charges should continue.
 Airtel said that IUC should not come down to zero and the BAK regime should be postponed by at least three years.
 Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel's Chief Regulatory Officer Ravi Gandhi rejected allegations of data fudging terming them as "misplaced" and said that people at times used the company's SIM into second slot of mobile phone which generally supports 2G or 3G network.
 He said there are 40 crore consumers are on 2G network and they use low-cost feature phones. Shutting down 2G network will mean depriving such consumers of telecom services. PRS MBI MSS ANS
ANS

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Reliance Jio asks TRAI to either reduce or remove IUC charges

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Trai's consultation on floor price, decision on IUC extension spells relief for Airtel, Voda

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IUC becomes bone of contention between incumbent telcos and Jio

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Airtel, Vodafone, Idea blame Jio for revenue losses

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Jio poised to play key role in development of 5G ecosystem in India: RIL

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COAI calls TRAI's consultation paper on call connect charges 'unfair'

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Telecom operators escalate war with Reliance Jio; say they are not obliged to give interconnection points

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Reliance Jio is yet to be launched, but is already breaking rules

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Reliance Jio is paying the price for being the ‘second SIM’ of choice

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CCI dismisses complaint of unfair biz practices against Voda Idea, Jio, Airtel

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Delay in implementation of zero call connect charges to hurt service affordability: Jio

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