Current Affairs - Miscellaneous - Discussion

The highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecom (DoT), Digital Communications Commission (DCC) approved to levy penalties on Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd for denial of interconnection to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd when it had entered the market in 2016. In October 2016, Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI) had fined Airtel and Vodafone with Rs. 1,050 crore each (Rs 50 cr per circle for 21 circles) and for Idea (Rs 50 cr per circle for 19 circles) it was Rs 950 crore. But as Vodafone and Idea merged (August 2018) to form Vodafone-Idea, the new entity had to bear the combined burden of Rs. 2000 cr. Reliance Jio had complained that its subscribers were unable to call other networks as its rivals did not release sufficient number of Points of Interconnect (PoI).