Reliance Jio recently revealed that it will not be swapping spectrum with Idea Cellular and Vodafone in certain circles. Without going into the details of the refusal, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited notified India’s Department of Telecom about its decision. All we know right now is that the company does not find the said proposal feasible.
The carrier cites interference issues in the frequencies owned by Vodafone and Idea Cellular as the main reason for the move, or let’s say, lack of a move. But it’s not that the company is completely opposed to the plan of exchanging any kind of spectrum with the other two mentioned parties.
As NDTVProfit implies, cross connection and problems with call quality may be good enough reason for the decision taken by Reliance Jio. The network operator apparently only appears to find fault with the spectrum held by Vodafone and Idea Cellular in the Delhi and Kerala circles, respectively.
Vodafone was going to cut a deal with the operator in question over 2G or airwave frequencies in the 1800MHz band, and Idea Cellular had been expecting to make a similar swap too. The 1800MHz spectrum will be used by all three companies to deliver customers 4G network services.
Reliance Jio has agreed to exchange spectrum with Idea in the Kolkata area though. The rules set down by the auction of airwaves in February this year, makes a provision for companies to swap frequencies if it is a mutual decision made by both parties who are involved in the deal.