Reliance Jio has rejected the accusation by rival giants Airtel[1] and Vodafone[2] that suggested it would benefit from the abolition of interconnect usage charges (IUC) that the telecommunications regulator TRAI[3] announced Tuesday evening.
One-year-old telecom operator Reliance Jio[4], which is owned by India's largest industrial house Reliance Industries, said on Wednesday it has always offered voice calls to customers in India at no charge, hence there was no logic in the accusation by Airtel and Vodafone.
"There is no question of any advantage from the new IUC regulation to Jio as it has already passed on all the benefits to customers. We deny any benefits to Jio," Reliance Jio said in a statement. "At a time when the world is moving towards IP-based technologies, cost of voice has come down to a fraction of a paisa and the customers should enjoy this advantage."
Late Tuesday evening, regulator TRAI slashed the interconnect usage charges[5] that telecom operators in India[6] impose for handling voice calls originating from each other's networks. The revised interconnection charge, which is effective starting October 1, is 8 paise per minute, down from 14 paise per minute. TRAI also said that starting January 1, 2020, the interconnect usage charge will be completely abolished.
Airtel and Vodafone fiercely resisted the new directive from TRAI, saying that the move is in favour of Reliance Jio. Airtel, which has over 260 million subscribers on its network, said it was "genuinely dismayed" by the decision[7]. "The suggested IUC rate, which has been arrived at in a completely non-transparent fashion, benefits only one operator which enjoys a huge traffic asymmetry in its favour," the company said...