Jio has already passed on all the benefits to customers, says the company on new IUC regulation

NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio said that it is committed to implementing the most efficient telecommunications network in India and passing on the benefits of technology to Indian customers.

"Jio offers free voice services to all its customers backed by a superior technology and has helped make India the world’s largest mobile data consuming country within one year of commencement of services," it said.

"Implementation of Bill & Keep regime will help in making services more affordable for Indian customers. It should have been implemented in 2014 as envisaged in the 2011 Report submitted by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to the Hon’ble Supreme Court and will be six years too late," it added.

"Jio has always offered free voice services to its customers. There is no question of any advantage from the new IUC regulation to Jio as it has already passed on all the benefits to customers. We deny any benefits to Jio. At a time when the world is moving towards IP-based technologies, cost of voice has come down to a fraction of a paisa and the customers should enjoy this advantage," the company said.

The Delhi High Court earlier today dismissed the petition of one of the incumbent operators while pronouncing that the appeal fails to show any violation of Section 11 (4) of the TRAI Act, 1997 (principles of transparency). It is appalling that the incumbent operators have still gone ahead and made untrue and baseless allegations against the process for determination of IUC or the regulator. The incumbent operators have a history of opposing all the IUC regulations over the last 8 years, but have not been successful in thwarting passing of the benefits of lower IUC to customers.

References to financial stress in the industry or the need for IUC to promote rural coverage again shows the attitude of the incumbent operators wherein IUC is being treated as a subsidy that the Indian customers must pay to sustain these operators financially. On the contrary, it is a fact that the high cost IUC regime thus far has caused financial stress for the smaller and new operators.

Technology is fast determining growth opportunities in the world. It is the responsibility of all the operators and other stakeholders to work together to achieve the vision of Digital India and transform the digital landscape of India. A forward-looking regulatory regime will contribute in achieving that vision.

Yesterday, India’s telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that it has reduced the interconnect usage charge (IUC) from October 1.

The regulator also said that the fee will be scrapped from 2020 and it would benefit to consumers.

Domestic Termination charges are the charges payable by a Telecom Service Provider (TSP) whose subscriber originates the call, to the TSP in whose network the call terminates, said TRAI in a statement.

Key features of the Regulations are as follows:

a) For Mobile to Mobile, termination charge has been reduced from 14 paisa per minute to 6 paisa per minute w.e.f. 1st October, 2017.

b) For other types of calls (such as wire-line to mobile, wire-line to wire- line and wire-line to mobile) the termination charge would continue to rernam zero.

c) From 1st January, 2020 onwards the termination charge for all types of domestic calls shall be zero.