Telecom war: Airtel takes on Jio, says bundling IUC with tariff unjustified

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said tariffs for mobile services are unsustainable and need to be increased. Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO for India and South Asia, also took on the recent move of Reliance Jio to charge 6 paise per minute for voice calls made by its users on networks of other operators, saying interconnection usage charges are not part of tariff but clearing charges among operators to transmit calls.

Jio has, however, said it will compensate users by giving free data of equal value.

“We believe tariffs are unsustainable. We believe tariffs need to go up. We have always maintained this stand,” Vittal said on the sidelines of the India Mobile Congress.