DoT imposes heavy fines on telecos. Rs 3,050 crores to be paid within Three weeks by Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Just as the dark woods seem to be clearing, Vi falls deeper with a fine of Rs 2,000 crore. Airtel follows suit with a fine of Rs 1,050 crore! And why has the Department of Telecommunications imposed such heavy fines on the telecom giants? Let’s find out.

Apparently, in 2016, there has been some issues that led to this announcement. As per the report from DoT, the fine is for “flouting licence conditions by denying Reliance Jio Infocomm adequate points of connection (PoIs) in 2016, which affected the quality of services”.

Vi suffers a bigger blow as it has to pay Rs 2000 crores, ie Rs950 crores additional to the amount Airtel is inclined to pay. This comes as a result of the 2018 merger with Idea Cellular. While this time the Rs 1050 crores fine results from not granting adequate PoIs in 21 circles each, the additional Rs 950 is because Idea Cellular defaulted on the PoI rules in 19 circles back in 2018. Together with the current financial crisis, telecom subscribers are yet to see how the telecos are going to survive this penalty, and that too within 3 weeks.

A spokesman from Airtel has met with the media to declare how deeply disappointed they are and called the Government action “arbitrary and unfair.”

These allegations were frivolous and motivated. Bharti Airtel takes pride in maintaining high standards of compliance and has always followed the law of the land. We will challenge the demand and pursue the legal options available to us, they added.

We have not had any response from reliable authorities of Vodafone Idea.

TRAI had recommended the above-mentioned fines way back in 2016 and though DoT had accepted this recommendation in June 2019, notices regarding the fines were released recently.