Telecom companies creating unhealthy competition may be fined

Three telecommunication companies, Airtel, Idea and Vodafone, may have to pay fines to the total of over Rs 3000 crores for exceeding point of interconnect congestion limit which created problems for their rival Reliance’s Jio.

Sakshi Chaturvedi
Published on: 22 Oct 2016 11:38 AM GMT
Telecom companies creating unhealthy competition may be fined
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New Delhi: Three telecommunication companies, Airtel, Idea and Vodafone, may have to pay fines to the total of over Rs 3000 crores for exceeding point of interconnect congestion limit which created problems for their rival Reliance’s Jio.

This penalty has been recommended by Telecom Regulatory Authority to the department of telecommunications which will take the final call on the issue. It may impose the fine on these companies. The recommendation was made on Friday.

Also Read: TRAI stamps Newstrack report; proves Reliance Jio a big failure

The regulator has found that the new entrant faced harassment due to unhealthy competition. The action of these companies was also against the public interest, it has observed.

It said“denial of interconnection by these operators to Jio appears to be with the ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer” which offers ground for cancellation of licence. However, the regulator did not recommend it because it would cause much inconvenience to consumers.

The regulator made these remarks on a complaint made by Reliance which has offered free services to its customers till December next.

Sakshi Chaturvedi

Sakshi Chaturvedi

A journalist, presently working as a Sub-Editor at newstrack.com.

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