Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman R.S. Sharma has summoned a meeting with telecom companies after receiving complaints about the newly launched Reliance Jio. The session will take place on September 30 or October 3 next month.
Sharma said that a few players in the telecom sector had written a letter to the TRAI, stating that Reliance Jio is violating certain norms in terms of IUC. The new network is supposed to pay a connection charge to its competitors when its subscribers dial up a call between them.
Reliance is currently offering Jio services for free. Its rivals have objected to this policy under the claim that it’s predatory pricing and is affecting the business of other companies. Since calls are not charged by Jio as yet, it is also not paying IUC. So competitors do not earn any revenue in this form.
It may be one of the reasons why telecom operators are hesitant to allocate interconnection points to Jio. The TRAI had previously received complaints from Reliance about call drops on its network due to the incompetence of its rivals.
The watchdog has observed that this ongoing clash between Reliance Jio and the other companies is ultimately affecting the consumer. The customer’s needs are of primary concern to the TRAI and hence it has decided to issue notices to the established players.
The regulatory body says that it is planning to hear both sides of the issue and seek a solution that acts in the best interest of subscribers.