The Telecom Commission on Monday directed the department of telecom (DoT) to seek clarity from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on whether the regulator can impose penalty on the operators for violation for interconnect norms.
The matter relates to the sectoral regulator recommending R50 crore per circle penalty on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular in October last year. The total amount of the fine stands at around R3,050 crore with a penalty of R1,050 crore each on Airtel and Vodafone, while in the case of Idea it comes to about R950 crore.
Trai had recommended the penalty after Reliance Jio Infocomm, in August 2016, had complained that more than 75% calls on its network were failing as incumbents were not releasing sufficient points of interconnection (PoIs).
Sources said that the inter-ministerial panel, in its meeting held on Monday, has sought clarity on about a dozen issues relating to due diligence and process including the R3,050 crore penalty on the telcom operators.