DCC fine with Airtel, Voda  Idea  penalty, but seeks lower quantum

New Delhi: The Digital Communications Commission (DCC) on Monday approved levying a penalty on Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd for allegedly denying interconnectivity to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd in 2016.

It, however, asked the telecom regulator to review the recommended ₹3,050-crore penalty, given the stress in the telecom sector.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in October 2016 recommended a penalty of ₹1,050 crore each on Airtel and Vodafone, and a ₹950 crore fine on Idea. Since Vodafone and Idea have been merged, the new entity will have to bear the combined burden. The recommendation came on a Jio complaint that more than 75% of calls on its network were failing as its rivals were not releasing sufficient number of points of interconnect (PoI).