Airtel: Lost Rs 550 crore with the tsunami of calls from Reliance Jio

India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel today rejected Reliance Jio's claims that incumbents were benefited from interconnection charges and said that the company has lost Rs 550 crore per quarter with the tsunami of calls originating from Reliance Jio's network.

With 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," the company 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", it said.

"The allegations made by Reliance Jio regarding Airtel earning excess revenue from MTC are not only false but laughable," further added.

The TRAI mandated MTC of 14 paise is well below the cost of producing a minute, which is currently at 35 paise.

Jio in its presentation in front of telecom regulator has said that 'number one' operator, has made the excess of Rs. 73,000 crore from interconnection usage charges (IUC).

Interconnection charges are paid by one telecom company to another for using the latter's network to complete calls

Ravi Gandhi, Chief Regulatory Officer, Bharti Airtel said: "In effect, Reliance Jio aims to build its business by getting a free ride on the highways built by Airtel and other operators. Their proposal to move to Bill and Keep will further burden other operators and make them weak. At the same time, it allows Reliance Jio to continue with its strategy of predatory pricing and ultimately throttle all competition. This is the sinister design of Jio."