Idea had earlier said it has decided to proactively expand capacity with Jio to over 6.5 million subscribers, with the release of 196 additional POIs, shortly.
According to sources, the regulator has said that it will take action against telecom operators found responsible for poor quality of service.
Airtel said it is a responsible organisation committed to complying with the regulations and the interconnect agreements in letter and spirit and will continue to be so.
“Based on the current traffic pattern (on Airtel’s network) with all other operators, this capacity is sufficient to serve over 15 million customers, which is significantly higher than Jio’s existing customer base,” the statement said.
Like Idea, Bharti Airtel also highlighted the issue of “massive asymmetry” in the volume of traffic between the two networks.
The company added that it would need to take cognizance of the situation and ensure that the quality of service for its own customers is not impacted.
Inter-connection is required to enable mobile users to make calls to customers of other telecom networks. A mobile operator levies inter-connection usage charge for each incoming call it gets from subscriber of another network.
Incumbent telecom operators have been demanding higher interconnection charges compared to 14 paise they get for each incoming mobile call on their network.
Airtel, which is the country’s largest operator with 255.73 million subscribers, has also extended an invitation to Jio for discussing its requirement of additional PoIs.
Airtel expressed hope that TRAI will look into the issue of asymmetric traffic on an urgent basis and ensure that massive volumes of free calls terminating on Airtel’s network do not adversely impact its network.
Sourced from PTI, Featured image courtesy: www.voicendata.com
