The Department of Telecom (DoT) is likely to form a committee to look into a proposal by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) suggesting a penalty of Rs 3,050 crore against Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for not meeting quality of service norms under licence conditions.
According to an official in DoT, it has been a practice for a panel to looks into Trai recommendations and the report prepared by the committee is then placed before the Telecom Commission for approval.
Based on a decision of the Telecom Commission, the DoT is likely to issue show-cause notices to the telecom operators and then levy the penalty.
A decision on forming the committee will be taken by Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha in the next couple of days.
Trai has proposed the highest penalty on telecom operators for failing to meet licence conditions relating to interconnect points to Reliance Jio, leading to large-scale call failures. Trai had written to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak that the “denial of interconnection to Reliance Jio appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer.”
The regulator had said though the act of telcos was against public interest and warrants recommendations for the revocation of the licence, in view of the larger public interest involved, it recommends a penal action of Rs 50 crore a licence service area where interconnect congestion exceeded the allowable limit of 0.5 per cent.
