Vodafone Idea shares dropped 3.8 percent and Bharti Airtel 2.6 percent intraday on June 17 after DCC's approval of the penalty imposed by telecom regulator in the Reliance Jio case.
Digital Communications Commission, the apex decision-making body of the telecom department, on June 17 approved imposing penalty on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for not providing points of interconnection to Reliance Jio, reports PTI quoting official sources.
However, before imposing the penalty, the Commission has decided to seek TRAI's views on revising Rs 3,050 crore penalty recommended by the sector regulator amid financial stress in the sector, the report added.
While Digital Communications Commission (DCC) approved imposing penalty on the companies, it disagreed with a proposal of one of the secretaries to fine Reliance Jio as it "too failed to deliver quality service to customers".
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in October 2016 recommended imposing a total penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on Airtel, Vodafone Idea for allegedly denying interconnectivity to newcomer RJio.
The penalty on Airtel and Vodafone works out to be about Rs 1,050 crore each. In case of Idea, it comes to about Rs 950 crore. Since Vodafone and Idea have now merged their businesses, the new entity Vodafone Idea will have to bear the burden of both companies.
TRAI's recommendation came on a complaint by RJio that over 75 percent of calls on its network were failing as incumbents were not releasing sufficient number of PoIs.
At 1435 hours IST, Vodafone Idea was down 2.80 percent at Rs 12.16 and Bharti Airtel down 2.35 percent at Rs 345 on the BSE.
(With inputs from PTI)
Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd., which owns Reliance Jio, is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust that controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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