As row between incumbents like Airtel and new entrant Reliance Jio escalated, telecom regulator Trai today stepped in and said it will slap show cause notices on operators for call drops that are far exceeding the norm.
With Mukesh Ambani-led Jio charging dominant incumbent operators of providing far fewer points of interconnect than needed for its users to complete calls on rival networks, Trai Chairman R S Sharma said the regulator has reviewed data and it will issue show cause notices.
"We have received the data. It shows call failure level is far far in excess of prescribed limit under Quality of Service rules. Prima Facie this constitutes to non compliance of licence condition related to interconnection and QoS norms on congestion levels at points of Interconnection (PoI)," he told PTI here.
Jio has claimed that it has been witnessing 75-80 per cent call failures over the last few weeks. It had said that over a period of 10 days alone, 52 crore calls failed cumulatively on the networks of the three incumbent operators Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
Trai had asked telecom operators to submit their network congestion details from September 15-19, 2016 to examine their claims.
Trai, Sharma said, has "decided to issue show cause notice to concerned operators and also issue direction to them to ensure compliance of licensing condition in connection with the PoI issue".
He refused however to name the operators.
"Whenever we notice violation, directive and show cause notices will be given to those," he said. "Unfortunately, customers are worst sufferers in this situation. They have no reason to suffer. It is our job to ensure that this issue is resolved at the earliest."
Reliance Jio has alleged over 12 crore calls fail daily between Jio and the networks of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
Jio has said blocking of calls is a breach of licence conditions by the incumbent operators and severely impacts customer interests.
Idea Cellular last week said it has agreed to provide 230 per cent additional inter-connection capacity to help users of Reliance Jio complete calls, a move Jio termed it as "grossly inadequate" displaying lack of intent to resolve the critical issue.
Jio first launched an inaugural free voice and data plan
beginning September, and earlier this month extended the freebies till March 31, 2017.
On Friday, incumbent operator Bharti Airtel moved telecom dispute tribunal TDSAT against Trai allowing Reliance Jio to continue free promotional offer beyond the stipulated 90 days, charging the regulator of being a "mute spectator" to violations.
In its 25-page petition before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), India's largest private mobile services operator had asked the quasi-judicial body to direct Trai to ensure that Jio does not provide its free voice and data plan beyond December 3.
Trai said that Reliance Jio, through a letter on December 7, had informed it about another promotional offer -- Happy New Year -- that would be available to new consumers with effect from December 4, 2016 to March 3, 2017 and the benefits of which would be available till March 31, 2017.
Consumers availing the earlier promotional offers too would be migrated to the Happy New Year offer, Trai has observed.
Trai said that free voice calls, unlimited video calling, and free data, and free Jio apps among others, were offered without break under the various promotional offers by RJIL from September 5.
Therefore, Trai said, preliminary examination of the new offer filed with it 'prima facie' reveals that except for minor change in the quantum of data being offered in the new offer, it seems to be an extension of the old promotional offer beyond 90 days.
