Not granting interconnect capacity is breach of licence agreement, says Jio

Jio wants Trai to direct incumbents to release interconnect capacity to meet its 100 mn subscriber target after launch

The war of words between Reliance Jio Infocomm and the incumbents seem to be showing no sign of abating. On 12th August, Reliance Jio shot off another letter to the telecom regulator R S Sharma requesting the authority to direct incumbent telecom operators to provide requisite number of additional E1s (Points of Interconnections) and complete augmentation within seven days. 

Jio has cited the letter written by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) dated 8th August 2016, whereby the lobby group has said that the incumbents would not provide any further PoIs to Jio during its test trials. The COAI had called Jio's test trial a charade in the letter.  

Jio's latest letter calls this denial a breach of License Agreement. In its letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Jio says: "Such unequivocal denial to provide PoIs for interconnection to RJIL is in blatant breach of the License Agreement. The License Agreement provides in very clear terms the obligation of the Licensee to provide interconnection facilities to other Licensees."

Quoting from the License Agreement, Jio says: "“Part I (General Conditions), 27.4 Licensee shall interconnect with other Telecom Service Providers at the Points of Interconnection (POI) subject to compliance of prevailing regulations, directions or determinations issued by TRAI." License conditions require operators to establish and maintain such one or more Points of Interconnect as are reasonably required and are of sufficient capacity and in sufficient number to enable transmission and reception of the messages by means of the applicable systems. 

Jio has stated that the License Agreement does not make it mandatory for any precondition for the release of PoIs by the other operators as COAI has claimed. The COAI's contention has been that the members cannot release further capacity till Jio launches commercially. The incumbents contended that since Jio is offering free services, the users are creating congestion on the networks of the incumbents. 

In their defence, incumbents have said that the operators have provided enough interconnect capacity to Jio for the number of subscribers it currently has. However, it is clear that Jio's ambitions go well beyond the 1.5 million users they currently have on their network. In June, Jio has written to all the existing telecom operators, seeking PoIs to support at least 22 million subscribers immediately after launch. The company cited its goal of getting 100 million subscribers in the first year of operations and, therefore,  sought PoIs to support 25 million subscribers every quarter after its launch. it is apparent that the incumbents are in no mood to oblige till Jio launches. 



While the Department of Telecommunications has not given its view yet on COAI's appeal to clarify what obligations bind incumbents during a trial run, Jio has made it clear that its demands are well within the purview of License conditions. Jio's letter to Trai further says: "It may be pertinent to note that the obligation of a Licensee to provide PoIs is absolute and not contingent on any other factors including, any traffic imbalance, or the Licensee not having announced commercial launch. Your good self may please note that RJIL has been complying with the relevant IUC payment terms with all operators per the relevant Interconnection Agreement and applicable TRAI regulations with respect to all of the test users."

Jio has yet again made it clear that it is imperative for it to get PoIs if it has to continue with its test run and commercial launch. The delay and denial to providing PoIs by dominant incumbent telecom service providers amounts to "gross repudiation of the terms of the License Agreement," Jio's letter also said. A copy of the letter was also marked to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak.