Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal says Jio’s free tariffs issue needs to settle as nothing can be free for a lifetime

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal on Wednesday said the Indian telecom industry needs to settle the issue of Reliance Jio‘s free tariffs, adding that “nothing can be free for a lifetime.” The telecom czar also urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to look into Jio’s free services. His comments however follow the regulator’s clean chit to Jio’s tariff plans.

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Incumbent telcos claim that free voice services for life are against the Telecom Tariff Order as it means offering a service even below the interconnect usage charge of 14 paise a minute. The regulator had recently suggested hefty penalties on Bharti Airtel, along with other incumbent telcos- Vodafone and Idea Cellular amounting to Rs 3,050 crore for denying points of interconnect to Reliance Jio. It added that action of these telcos showed “ulterior motive to stifle competition”.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event here organised by GSMA, Mittal said his company would respond to the government and the regulator regarding the penalties slapped on it. “Trai must have some confusion regarding the PoIs offered to Reliance Jio,” Mittal said.

Bharti Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal, during analyst call today said that the company is aware of proposed penalty. “We believe there is confusion here. We will find way to go back to Trai and DoT. We are very confident that government will take a very objective position in the Herculean efforts we have put to resolve this issue.”