Rival operators seeking higher charge to connect Reliance Jio calls

September 10, 2016 | Published by : ILT Staff Reporter

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New Delhi, Sep 10: Incumbent telecom operators have demanded a higher than prescribed fee to enable the ‘tsunami’ of calls originating from Reliance Jio network to be connected to numbers on their network. Called interconnect usage charge (IUC), its current rate is 14 paise per minute.

The demand comes at a time when Jio has alleged that crores of calls originating from its network are not getting connected+ to other networks.

Jio has also accused rivals of violating the telecom licence conditions by failing to provide adequate connections.

Incumbent operators made their demand at a meeting of telecom companies called by regulator Trai on Friday.

At the meeting, operators assured Jio of providing “reasonable incremental” number of interconnection points but voiced concern over what they viewed as uncharacteristically high traffic flow from the new entrant’s network due to its offer offree voice calling. This, they said, had put a “financial burden” on their operations, which they claimed could not be met by the present IUC rate.

“This needs to be raised, and by a high degree, to make up for Jio’s abnormally large number of outgoing calls which is clogging our networks,” officials of the operators said during the meeting, according to sources. The rates are governed by Trai and it has already issued a consultation paper on the subject.

Jio, which shook the industry by offering lifetime free outgoing calls , has said that its subscribers are not able to connect to the networks of other companies when making calls, or when called in.

Tags: #IUC, #RelianceJio, #TRAI