Bharti Airtel today rejected Reliance Jio’s claim that incumbents were hugely benefitted from call connection charges and said it suffered losses to the tune of Rs 550 crore every quarter due to ‘tsunami of calls’ that originated from the network of the new entrant.
The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led firm said Jio’s demand to end mobile termination charges (MTC) is a “sinister design” to “continue with its strategy of predatory pricing and ultimately throttle all competition”.
“The allegations made by Reliance Jio regarding Airtel earning excess revenue from MTC are not only false but laughable,” the New Delhi-headquartered said in a statement.
It said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) mandated MTC of 14 paise, which is less than the cost of producing a call minute, “which is currently at 35 paise”. “…the tsunami of calls originating from Reliance Jio’s network, Airtel loses 21 paise for every minute that is carried on its network. This has resulted in a loss of Rs 550 crore per quarter for Airtel alone,” the company said
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