Jio Alleges Airtel, Idea Made Excess Recovery of Rs 1.2 Lakh Crore in Interconnect Usage Charges

Reliance Jio has reportedly alleged that India’s top two telecom operators had made excess recovery of around Rs 1.2 lakh crore in Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) over the actual cost of termination in the last five years, dismissing claims that they are incurring losses due to the reduction in call connect charges. It said that India’s leading telco, Bharti Airtel, made excess recovery of Rs 73,385 crore, while Idea Cellular, which is the third largest telco, made excess recovery of Rs 45,940 crore.

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The Mukesh Ambani-led telco, in its presentation to the telecom regulator, said that IUC rates have gone up from 10% of voice call charges in 2003 to 45% of call charges in 2017. It further added that voice traffic increased 7,200% during this period, debunking claims that incumbents were making losses due to the reduction of IUC charges.

Earlier this week, both Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular sought to double the interconnect usage charge (IUC), to 30 paise per minute from the present 14 paise per minute to cover their costs. These telcos argued that if the IUC is scrapped, then they will lose the maximum revenue since they have the most number of subscribers and garner a major share of the termination charges as most calls end on their networks. They also backed the existing model of calling party pays (CPP) where a telco on whose network a call ends gets interconnect charge from the telco where the call originates.