TRAI issues draft to tweak interconnect regulations

Telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday issued a draft to amend regulations on interconnect, with certain changes in terms and conditions for operators to seek fresh call connect ports from other telcos.

The 'draft Telecommunication Interconnection (Amendment) Regulations 2018' has proposed that a service provider can ask another operator for additional ports, in case the projected utilisation of the capacity exceeds 85 per cent over 60 day period.

"The time frame for provisioning of ports for initial interconnection and augmentation is proposed to be increased to maximum 42 working days," Trai said in a statement.

Seeking views and comments on the draft from the industry by May 18, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that an operator will have to give a forecast of outgoing call traffic of busy hours for each interconnect point once every six months -- April 1 and October 1 -- to the interconnecting service provider.

The first such forecast has to be given within two months from the commencement of these amended regulations, Trai said.

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The inter-connectivity issue had been a major bone of contention between Reliance Jio and incumbent telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, when Jio launched its services in 2016. 

In a continuing feud, Reliance Jio had accused other operators of not providing it sufficient points of interconnect leading to call failures, while operators blamed the free calls offered by the newcomer for the tsunami of network traffic.

Trai, in 2016, had also recommended imposing Rs 1,050 crore penalty each on Airtel and Vodafone and Rs 950 crore on Idea Cellular for violating quality of service rules.

The regulator had then stated that it found the trio non-compliant with licence conditions and service quality norms, given the high rate of call failures and congestion at interconnect points for Reliance Jio.

(With inputs from agencies)