The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today asked incumbent service providers and new entrant Reliance Jio to settle their interconnection dispute amongst themselves.
At a meeting where representatives of both sides met the regulator, the latter told attendees that the matter of points of interconnection (PoI) should first be settled bilaterally, failing which an adjudicator be appointed.
For now, both parties have agreed to try and resolve their issues bilaterally.
Telecom companies sign agreements with each other under which each company is mandatorily obliged to provide points of interconnection, which facilitate carriage of a call from one operator to another. In lieu, the telco whose subscribers make the call pays the other operator 14 paise per minute for allowing the call to go through.
Rajan Mathews, Director-General of industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), told CNBC-TV18 that telecom firms have complained about the volume of calls that are being made to Jio's users to other networks, thanks to the company offering free calls, which they say congests their infrastructure.
