 "People queuing for Jio sim card outside Reliance Digital Express store in Lucknow")
The war of words between Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio escalated further on Sunday, with the country’s largest operator terming the latter’s complaints as mere shadowboxing. Airtel categorically denied “the rhetorical statements made by Reliance Jio with regard to the release of additional PoIs [Points of Interconnect] and mobile number portability requests.”
On Sunday, Jio said the interconnect capacity provided by Airtel was less than one-fourth of the capacity sought. While releasing additional PoIs to Jio, Airtel had said the capacity would support 15 million subscribers, which was more than Jio's existing subscriber base.
Jio has also alleged that Airtel has insisted on certain unilateral deviations from interconnect agreement between the two parties by asking for installation of interconnect points in a manner wherein traffic moves only one way and not two ways.
In response, Airtel said: “It appears that the constant rhetoric may be a ploy by Jio to cover up some technical issues in their own network, which is causing call failures, by constantly blaming other operators. In addition, call drops or the lack of Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) stabilisation should not be hidden behind the issue of PoIs, which are being augmented at regular and quick intervals.”
Late in the evening, Jio responded to Airtel by stating there were zero Jio-to-Jio call failures, even as there were 20 million call failures between Jio and Airtel networks. Mukesh Ambani-led telecom major also invited Department of Telecommunications to inspect and confirm its claims. Jio said that it was the aggrieved party and was trying to do its best to resolve the issue. Jio maintained that Airtel was being anti-competition as it was refusing to let consumers port out of its network to Jio’s. Airtel had called Jio’s allegations of blocking port outs by 69 consumers as “flimsy”.
Last week, Airtel released 2,000 PoIs to Jio, following a meeting called by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to resolve the impasse over interconnection. Idea and Vodafone also augmented interconnect capacity with Jio. However, Jio has continued to issue statements blaming incumbents for call failures, saying the proposed interconnect bandwidth is less than what Jio has sought.
On Sunday, it said Airtel had insisted on certain unilateral deviations from the Interconnection Agreement between the parties, with respect to installation of one-way E1s as against both-way E1s. E1 stands for European 1, which is typically a two MBPS link that can support 30 voice calls simultaneously.
Jio has alleged one-way E1s are typically installed between similar sized networks. Jio’s statement said: “It is apparent that Airtel continues to abuse its market dominance by imposing onerous conditions which will imminently hinder RJIL’s ability to efficiently utilise the additional E1s. It appears that the QoS will continue to suffer…”
Sources within Airtel say according to bilateral agreements, in the first two years E1s can allow incoming, outgoing or two-way traffic. After the meeting with Trai officials, Airtel has released 1,350 PoIs to Jio from which traffic from Jio’s network will terminate on Airtel’s network, as more consumers of Jio are calling.
For the remaining 650 PoIs, Airtel is enabling its own traffic to terminate on Jio’s network. However, Jio is seeking two-way traffic on all PoIs.
On Sunday, Jio said the interconnect capacity provided by Airtel was less than one-fourth of the capacity sought. While releasing additional PoIs to Jio, Airtel had said the capacity would support 15 million subscribers, which was more than Jio's existing subscriber base.
Jio has also alleged that Airtel has insisted on certain unilateral deviations from interconnect agreement between the two parties by asking for installation of interconnect points in a manner wherein traffic moves only one way and not two ways.
In response, Airtel said: “It appears that the constant rhetoric may be a ploy by Jio to cover up some technical issues in their own network, which is causing call failures, by constantly blaming other operators. In addition, call drops or the lack of Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) stabilisation should not be hidden behind the issue of PoIs, which are being augmented at regular and quick intervals.”
Late in the evening, Jio responded to Airtel by stating there were zero Jio-to-Jio call failures, even as there were 20 million call failures between Jio and Airtel networks. Mukesh Ambani-led telecom major also invited Department of Telecommunications to inspect and confirm its claims. Jio said that it was the aggrieved party and was trying to do its best to resolve the issue. Jio maintained that Airtel was being anti-competition as it was refusing to let consumers port out of its network to Jio’s. Airtel had called Jio’s allegations of blocking port outs by 69 consumers as “flimsy”.
Last week, Airtel released 2,000 PoIs to Jio, following a meeting called by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to resolve the impasse over interconnection. Idea and Vodafone also augmented interconnect capacity with Jio. However, Jio has continued to issue statements blaming incumbents for call failures, saying the proposed interconnect bandwidth is less than what Jio has sought.
On Sunday, it said Airtel had insisted on certain unilateral deviations from the Interconnection Agreement between the parties, with respect to installation of one-way E1s as against both-way E1s. E1 stands for European 1, which is typically a two MBPS link that can support 30 voice calls simultaneously.
Jio has alleged one-way E1s are typically installed between similar sized networks. Jio’s statement said: “It is apparent that Airtel continues to abuse its market dominance by imposing onerous conditions which will imminently hinder RJIL’s ability to efficiently utilise the additional E1s. It appears that the QoS will continue to suffer…”
Sources within Airtel say according to bilateral agreements, in the first two years E1s can allow incoming, outgoing or two-way traffic. After the meeting with Trai officials, Airtel has released 1,350 PoIs to Jio from which traffic from Jio’s network will terminate on Airtel’s network, as more consumers of Jio are calling.
For the remaining 650 PoIs, Airtel is enabling its own traffic to terminate on Jio’s network. However, Jio is seeking two-way traffic on all PoIs.
