Idea Cellular has agreed to allot 196 Points of Interconnection (PoI) to newcomer Reliance Jio to address the issue of call drops faced by the latter. The move has been made days after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) called for a meeting with major network operators in the country. The interconnection points will allow call traffic for around 1.85 million customers between the two companies.
Reliance had previously accused established service providers of not allocating enough PoI for its operations. TRAI summoned telecom companies like Idea and Vodafone along with the newly launched Jio to discuss the issues present between them. It was decided in this meeting that the former will provide sufficient PoI to the latest member during a mutually-agreed period of 90 days.
PoI are connecting points for calls between any two network operators, chargeable under Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC). Of all the companies present at the TRAI meeting, Idea was the first to initiate a truce of sorts with Jio by allocating it a share of interconnection points.
Reliance claimed that its new network’s call drops were due to the fact that it has insufficient PoI. TRAI declared in a statement to PTI that all operators will have to comply with the regulation of providing a new entrant with the necessary share of infrastructure for its functioning. In case any company breaches the directive, it will face immediate action.
With Idea taking initiative, other telcos may soon follow suit and grant PoI to Jio. Along with the previously mentioned declaration, the TRAI also rejected the higher IUC demands made by Vodafone and Airtel.