Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, the two largest telecom operators in India, had requested TRAI (telecom regulatory authority of India) to investigate the Navi Mumbai International Airport. This request for investigation sprung due to uneven playing ground that the airport is allegedly creating for the telcos. This makes it harder for Airtel and Jio to deliver seamless connectivity services to its customers travelling via the Navi Mumbai airport. The telcos are struggling with the Right of Way (RoW) permissions around the airport.
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The telcos said that they are facing issues due to non-transparent and unclear rules around costs and conditions associated with deploying network infrastructure. According to the viewpoint of the telcos, the airports are public entities and thus, should grant access to the licensed telecom operators in a non-discriminatory basis.
The airport is allegedly forcing telecom operators to accept a centralised network solution managed by a third party. This is increasing the costs of maintaining and delivering network services to the customers for the telcos. Further, this can also create limited mobile network connectivity scenarios for the travellers. It can have negative implications in the journey of a traveller who needs to be connected to the internet almost all the time.
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The telcos had approached the TRAI to look into this matter, and now TRAI will. This is an important dispute for the telcos to win. Because losing here would set a precedent none of the operators would want to be there. This could potentially result in other airports also engaging in a similar behaviour as that of the Adani Navi Mumbai International airport. It will be interesting to see in which way the decision of the regulatory body will go.
