Provided 17000 PoIs to Jio, sufficient for 75 mn users: Airtel

Airtel today said it has so far given over 17,000 interconnect points to Reliance Jio that is "sufficient" for 75 million customers even as it asked Trai to examine incredible asymmetry of calls that have the potential to "degrade consumer experience and meltdown networks".
Within days of the telecom regulator suggesting a Rs 1,050 crore penalty on it for purportedly denying network connectivity to new operator Reliance Jio, Airtel said it has provided 7,000 additional points of interconnect (PoIs) to Reliance Jio, which the latter must now operationalise with "alacrity".
In a statement, Airtel said it has "provided over 7,000 additional points of interconnect to Reliance Jio, taking the total number of PoIs provided till date to over 17,000. This capacity is sufficient to serve over 75 million customers, based on the forecast provided by Jio to Airtel".

The augmentation will ensure service quality is maintained and customers are not inconvenienced, it added.
Asking Jio to ensure additional PoIs that are "promptly" made available are operationalised with "same alacrity", Airtel said this will help identify any network-related issues which Jio may have in their network should any problems persist.
"In addition, Jio has already provided us their future requirements for capacities at 100 million customers. As and when they ramp up their current subscriber base, we will further augment capacities ahead of time, as we have always done," it said.

In the same breath, it asked Trai to examine the "incredible asymmetry" of calls terminating on the Airtel network from Jio due to the latter's free services. "This continued asymmetry will degrade the customer experience for Airtel customers over time and meltdown networks," it said.

"As a responsible organisation, Airtel is committed to complying with all Trai regulations and interconnect agreements in letter and spirit and will continue to be so in future as well," it said.
Airtel said it has been providing PoIs to Jio even ahead of the latter's commercial launch, and post the launch, PoIs have been released at a "staggering" pace well ahead of bilateral and regulatory obligations.
"As a matter of fact, the number of PoIs provided by Airtel to Jio is more than 2.5 times the number provided to an existing operator with a comparable subscriber base," Airtel said.

Stating that the capacity is now enough to cater to 75 million customers, Airtel said, "With this augmentation, Airtel has provided Jio capacity that is comparable to operators with six to eight times the customer base of Jio....