Telcos tell PMO: Not obliged to entertain Jio’s requests for interconnection points

The ongoing battle for interconnection points between Reliance Jio and India’s top telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular is set to escalate further even after the commercial launch of services by the Mukesh Ambani-led telco in India.

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Incumbent telecom operators have reportedly told the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) “they are in no way obliged or in any position to entertain Reliance Jio Infocomm’s requests for interconnection points.”

The telcos through their industry body said Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that they don’t have either the network or the financial resources to terminate Jio’s massive volumes of potentially asymmetric voice traffic.

COAI, in its letter to Nripendra Misra, principal secretary at PMO, which was assessed by ET, said that unloading tsunamis of asymmetric incoming voice traffic from a (potential) 100 million Reliance Jio customers can lead to the weighted average voice realisation of existing operators plunging from 30-40 paise per voice minute to 22-25 paise per voice minute or even lower.

COAI said that the incoming-to-outgoing traffic ratio in India is normally 1:1, but Jio’s beta tests had tended to veer it towards an asymmetric 10:1. The body said that this would undoubtedly lead it to a 15:1ratio once its potential 100 million subscribers grow accustomed to unlimited free voice service.

ET reported that COAI had sent this letter on September 2, a day after the Reliance Industries AGM where Mukesh Ambani announced Jio’s September 5 launch date.