Cannot recommend penalty changes in interconnect case: Trai official

Telecom regulator's penalty on Airtel and Vodafone works out to be about Rs 1,050 crore each.

TRAI cannot modify the penalty it has recommended on Vodafone India and the merged Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel because it is bound by the provisions of Trai Act, according to a senior official of the telecom regulator.

Citing the clauses in the Act, the regulator recently informed the Department of Telecom (DoT) that it is "constrained from offering any further comments" on the matter and the Centre now has to take a final call on the issue.

The regulator has already given its views once in response to a back reference in 2017 by DoT, the Trai official said adding that