Airtel, Jio call for financial relief & incentives, differ over IUC

NEW DELHI: A fresh war of words over mobile call termination charges erupted on Day 2 of India Mobile Congress with RelianceNSE 0.50 % Jio calling it an outdated concept associated with plain vanilla 2G networks while Bharti AirtelNSE 0.13 % said it’s a key bilateral pact between telcos.

Both Jio and Airtel, though, were united in their call for financial relief and reforms for the sector through lower taxation, reduced spectrum usage charges, deferment of universal services obligation fund (USOF) levy and refund of input tax credit.

Interconnect usage charge (IUC) is a charge the telecom service provider of a caller pays to the telco on whose network the call terminates.