Reliance Jio, Airtel Trade Charges Over Interconnection Issue
Two crore calls fail every day, Airtel hasn't provided adequate POIs: Jio Ports of interconnection or POI allow seamless calls between two networks Airtel categorically denied charge, said Jio covering up its shortcomings
"All lines in this route are busy. Please try again later." This is the standard response Ravi Kant Sharma gets when he tries calling from his Jio number to any other network.
"The internet service is very good as it is 4G but when you call other networks, you face a lot of problems," says Mr Sharma, a resident of Noida.
Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio has alleged that two crore calls between the two networks fail every day as Airtel has not provided adequate number of ports of interconnect (POI).
An interconnect port is the mechanism that allows seamless calls between two networks without any disruption. In a statement attacking Airtel, Jio said, "More than two crore calls are failing everyday between the two networks, which is far in excess of quality of service (QoS) parameters and of alarming proportions."
Reliance also accused that Airtel's existing customers were not being allowed to shift to other networks and "urgent steps are required to be taken in the interest of customers of both operators", and said that last week, Airtel had agreed to increase the number of POIs only after "(telecom regulator) TRAI's intervention."
Airtel categorically denied the charge and alleged Jio of raising the issue of POIs to cover up its own shortcomings. Hitting back, Airtel's statement said, "It appears that the constant rhetoric may be a ploy by Jio to cover up some technical issues in their own network, which is causing call failures, by constantly blaming other operators."
