Idea Cellular on Tuesday moved Delhi High Court against the telecom regulator’s recommendation to impose penalty of Rs 950 crore on it for not providing adequate interconnection to Reliance Jio Infocomm. The development comes a month after Vodafone filed a similar plea.
The department of telecom (DoT), however, claimed that Idea's petition was not maintainable as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had only given a recommendation. The matter came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, who appeared for the department of telecom (DoT) on Tuesday at the Delhi High Court, opposed Idea’s plea, on grounds that it was premature since no action had been taken yet on the telecom regulator's October 21, 2016 recommendation.
The bench, thereafter, issued notices to both the telecom regulator and the DoT asking them to file affidavits on the issue of maintainability of Idea's plea before the next date of hearing on February 21.
Idea meanwhile, in its plea, has claimed that it complied with and met the requirements of Jio for points of interconnections (PoIs).
Giving details of its arrangement with Jio, Idea has said that as of January 19 it had allocated as many as 19,175 PoIs to the new entrant and said that congestion and call failures on Jio’s network were a consequence of the telco’s own “gross underestimation” of the volume, traffic and duration of calls owing to the free voice calls and data offer.
In December last year, Vodafone had challenged TRAI's recommendation to DoT to impose Rs 1050 crore penalty on it on RJIO's complaint.
The matter is at currently pending before another bench of the high court where the DoT and TRAI have contended that the plea was not maintainable.
TRAI had recommended imposition of Rs 50 crore penalty per circle on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, which came to Rs 1050 crore for Airtel and Vodafone each and Rs 950 crore on Idea .
The regulatory authority had said that Airtel, Idea and Vodafone’s denial to JIO appeared to be with the ulterior motive to stifle competition and that it was anti-consumer in nature.
Idea and Airtel have separately filed applications at the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) urging it to direct the telecom regulator to ask Jio to stop the free voice and data services as it was “predatory” and against the telecom tariff orders passed by the regulator itself.
Jio on its part has taken the three incumbents to the competition commission, claiming that they were stifling its entry into the telecom sector by not allowing adequate PoIs. The matter will come up for preliminary hearing on January 31.
The department of telecom (DoT), however, claimed that Idea's petition was not maintainable as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had only given a recommendation. The matter came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, who appeared for the department of telecom (DoT) on Tuesday at the Delhi High Court, opposed Idea’s plea, on grounds that it was premature since no action had been taken yet on the telecom regulator's October 21, 2016 recommendation.
The bench, thereafter, issued notices to both the telecom regulator and the DoT asking them to file affidavits on the issue of maintainability of Idea's plea before the next date of hearing on February 21.
Idea meanwhile, in its plea, has claimed that it complied with and met the requirements of Jio for points of interconnections (PoIs).
Giving details of its arrangement with Jio, Idea has said that as of January 19 it had allocated as many as 19,175 PoIs to the new entrant and said that congestion and call failures on Jio’s network were a consequence of the telco’s own “gross underestimation” of the volume, traffic and duration of calls owing to the free voice calls and data offer.
In December last year, Vodafone had challenged TRAI's recommendation to DoT to impose Rs 1050 crore penalty on it on RJIO's complaint.
The matter is at currently pending before another bench of the high court where the DoT and TRAI have contended that the plea was not maintainable.
TRAI had recommended imposition of Rs 50 crore penalty per circle on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, which came to Rs 1050 crore for Airtel and Vodafone each and Rs 950 crore on Idea .
The regulatory authority had said that Airtel, Idea and Vodafone’s denial to JIO appeared to be with the ulterior motive to stifle competition and that it was anti-consumer in nature.
Idea and Airtel have separately filed applications at the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) urging it to direct the telecom regulator to ask Jio to stop the free voice and data services as it was “predatory” and against the telecom tariff orders passed by the regulator itself.
Jio on its part has taken the three incumbents to the competition commission, claiming that they were stifling its entry into the telecom sector by not allowing adequate PoIs. The matter will come up for preliminary hearing on January 31.
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