Jio, Airtel spar on use of USO fund for tower fiberisation

NEW DELHI: India’s top two telecom operators – Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel – have divergent views on the use of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Jio believes that at present the cash reserve is being used to fiberise the towers of competitors which “should not happen”, while Airtel opines that that the Centre should now start using USOF to fiberise towers.

“…Let it [USOF] remain with the operators. Let them fiberise their own towers instead of one operator funding the towers of others. That should not happen,” said Ravi Gandhi, Chief Regulatory Officer, Jio.