Trai to take action for call failures on Rel Jio network

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman R S Sharma said on Monday that the regulator will take swift action for call failures on the network of Reliance Jio as breach of quality of services to consumers is taken “very seriously .“

“We will certainly act very fast... We take this very seriously ,“ Sharma said in his first reaction on the matter, which has seen Jio pitted against incumbents such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular over massive call failures on its network. Sharma said quality of service and consumer protection are key mandate of Trai and the regulator will ensure that poor services are addressed at the earliest.

The regulator has asked for call details and failures from all the operators, including Jio and Airtel, between September 15 and September 19 to understand the reasons behind call failures, which Jio claims have exceeded over 52 crore calls since it formally began services on September 5.

“We will analyse this and take appropriate action,“ Sharma said. “It should take just a couple of days (to complete the inquiry and take action).“ Jio has alleged that rival telcos have not been providing it adequate points of interconnect (PoIs), which are essential to complete calls. The two sides have been engaged in a bitter feud on the matter that has seen representations being made to Trai, telecom ministry and even the Prime Minister's Office.

While Jio has said that the companies, especially Airtel, have been slow in its requests for offering additional PoIs, the incumbents have denied the allegation and have given assurances of boosting the infrastructure.

Sharma, however, said that interconnect arrangements were “bilateral issues“ between companies even as the regulator has already facilitated a meeting of the operators to sort out the matter. “Trai is concerned about the welfare of consumers and the quality of services.“

He said as per the guidelines, there cannot be a call failure rate of more than 0.5% on any network. “You cannot have more than 5 calls failing in a total of 1,000 calls as per the regulations. We would like the telecom service providers to ensure that the issue of interconnect points does not lead to call failures or quality of service issue.“

(TOI)