Reportedly a new report by market research firm techARC said the telecom operators paid a total of Rs 11,838 crore as IUC or interconnect user charges in 2018, led by Vodafone which paid Rs 4,214 crore followed by Airtel at Rs 3,411 crore and Jio at Rs 2,809 crore. Meanwhile BSNL/MTNL paid Rs 1,405 crore as IUC charges, said the techINSIGHT report which is based on TRAI's annual report published in September this year.
Furthermore with Reliance Jio announcing 6 paise per minute charge for voice calls to rival networks, Vodafone Idea termed the announcement "an action of undue haste" and Airtel termed the mukesh Ambani owned company's move a forced tactics to reduce interconnection charges and the IUC charges are paid for off-net calls to the operator on whose network a call terminates.
Earlier in 2018, Vodafone-Idea, Airtel and Jio paid 35%, 29% and 24% of the total amount of Rs 11,838 crore, respectively. Apparently Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, techAR said "While Jio has invested in an all-IP network to support offering free voice calls the disruption it entered with incumbents are still not pure IP networks". According to Kawoosa, there has to be a different mechanism to be worked out regarding IUC where nobody loses money and there is harmony among operators.
