Airtel, Reliance Jio in fresh war of words

NEW DELHI: A fresh war of words over mobile call termination charges erupted on Day 2 of India Mobile Congress with Reliance Jio calling it an outdated concept associated with plain vanilla 2G networks while Bharti Airtel said it’s a key bilateral pact between telcos.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.
“The concepts of points of interconnect and interconnection are related to 2G and are outdated,” Jio president (networks) Mathew Oommen said. Telcos need to “invest in more efficient technologies such as 4G before venturing into 5G” or risk obsolescence, he said.