'Jio growing business by incurring huge losses'

NEW DELHI: British telecom major Vodafone has petitioned the government for relief with group CEO Vittorio Colao seeking more time in making spectrum payments while expressing concern over any move to cut the interconnect charges (IUC) - the payment that phone companies pay each other for connecting calls. The telecom company also hit out at Muksh Ambani's Reliance Jio, saying the company has been growing operations on the back of "extreme promotional activity and generated by incurring huge losses".

Colao's letter follows a similar move by Bharti Enterprises chief Sunil Mittal and Aditya Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, whose company Idea Cellular is in the process of merging with Vodafone India's operations.

Reliance Jio temporarily stops pre-booking of JioPhone

“Thank You India! Millions have pre-booked the JioPhone. We’ll inform you when pre-booking resumes,” says the text message with a link from where interested users can register the device.

"We hope that the IMG (Inter-Ministerial Group) will recommend a reduction in the interest rates for deferred spectrum payments to 6.25% in line with the improved macro-economic trends and an increase in the period of payment for spectrum," Colao said in a letter to telecom minister Manoj Sinha. "We are seriously alarmed to see reports that the regulator is considering a reduction in MTC (mobile termination charge or IUC) at a time when the industry is facing such immense hardships." The hardships for the older telecom companies began after the aggressive entry of Reliance Jio in September last year on free voice and crippling tariff plans.

"Any reduction in MTC risks large-scale site shutdown of already unprofitable sites in rural India and which would greatly diminish the population coverage of mobile telephony," Vodafone said.