Telecom body alleges misinformation on IUC

Trai is reportedly aiming to conclude the IUC review soon and will come out with a new framework

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has said entities seeking implementation of the ‘bill and keep’ (BAK) method for interconnections between operator systems are “distorting facts”.

They’ve cited an affidavit given by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to the Supreme Court (SC) in 2011. That affidavit, it has said, listed symmetry of traffic as a pre-condition to implement a BAK regime. The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio had alleged the top three operators had benefited by at least Rs 1 lakh crore due to non-implementation of BAK.

During an open house discussion on the interconnection usage charge (IUC) on July