Sunil Mittal contradicts TRAI over Jio interconnect penalty

New Delhi: Contrary to the outlook of TRAI regarding the free voice call offered by Reliance Jio, Chairman of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Mittal on Wednesday said that “nothing could be free for a lifetime”.

Mittal was speaking to media at the sidelines of an event organised by GSMA. His reply comes after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had said that it found nothing wrong in Jio’s tariff plans.

Speaking over the fine of Rs 3050cr imposed by TRAI on major telecos, Mittal said that the telecom regulatory must have some confusion regarding the points of interconnections (PoL) offered to Reliance Jio.

The TRAI on Oct 21 slapped heavy penalties on three telecom players -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular -- amounting to Rs 3,050 crore for not providing sufficient PoIs to Reliance Jio.

In the case of Airtel and Vodafone, the fines imposed were for 21 LSAs, amounting to Rs 1,050 crore each while in the case of Idea, the fine was Rs 950 crore for 19 LSAs.

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