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Trai seeks details from telcos on congestion levels

Jio said rival telecom operators are not supporting their mobile subscribers when they are opting for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in order to join Jio.

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Even after 15 days, the issue of inter connectivity between Reliance Jio and other major telecom operators remains unresolved as 10 crore calls made from Reliance Jio are not connecting on the platform with Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.

Reliance Jio is in a stiff combat with Airtel, as RIL claims more than 2 crore call failures are recorded between the two networks. Such capacity should be enough to serve 15 million Jio customers calling to Airtel numbers.

Airtel said it released the demand notes for the additional PoIs on September 14, 2016 itself. An interconnection usage charge (IUC) is one that a telecom operator has to pay another, if a call originating on its network terminates on the other’s network. Airtel had also allotted a certain number of PoI to the Mukesh Ambani-led company which the latter claims to be insufficient.

Although the details submitted by the five operators pertain to call traffic patterns, it is unlikely to be directly relevant to the inter-connect dispute that is now playing out in the telecom sector where incumbent operators have clashed with Reliance Jio for unleashing “unprecedented asymmetry of traffic”.

Reliance JioFi lets you connect not just 4G devices, but also 3G phones via its hotspot network, which gives users the luxury to enjoy Jio services without upgrading the current smartphone.

“Consequent to successful testing of the PoIs, these will be opened for traffic”, the statement said.

Reliance Jio, however, has claimed that the issues on its service are not due to natural congestion, but artificial blockage of services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reportedly told the sparring operators to resolve the matter among themselves; else it will take a call on the matter.

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Earlier, in a meeting called by TRAI, the incumbent operators had agreed to release additional interconnection so that it does not affect quality of service (QoS) parameters. This is another example of disregard of license terms and its obligations under the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009 and TRAI directions. This is against public interest and fair play. “Most of the porting requests to the three operators are still getting rejected for unsubstantiated reasons”. The allegation of blocking 69 odd port out requests from Jio sound rather flimsy as stated by the company. Additionally, on the issue of MNP, the company has already that they’re processing all requests and not blocking as per guidelines.

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal