Rs 3,050 crore penalty on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea: Three panelists didn’t approve fine

The decision of the Digital Communications Commission (DCC) at its meeting on July 24 to levy a cumulative penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for not providing points of interconnection to Reliance Jio in 2016 was not a unanimous one.

Sources who attended the meeting told FE that three members of the inter-ministerial panel, which is the highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecommunications, dissented, while four others voted in favour of the penalty.