Reliance Jio, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group, has increased the ring time of outgoing calls from its network from 20 to 25 seconds, but this does not lessen the resentment of other companies like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, as they At least 30 seconds are adamant on keeping ring time.
Warning to Telecom Companies
It is worth noting that Airtel recently wrote a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) warning that if Jio's ring time is maintained, other telecom companies can also reduce the ring time for outgoing calls to 20 seconds. Airtel had requested TRAI to ask Jio to increase ring time.
Economic Times has quoted a source as saying, "Reliance Jio has increased the ring time for its outgoing call to 25 seconds. This is a kind of interim step and the company is waiting for TRAI's guideline in this regard. In a letter to TRAI, Airtel has alleged that Jio is tampering with interconnection usage charge (IUC) by reducing ring time. Airtel has said that the short time ring alert means that there will be more missed calls and in this way there will be more return phone calls in Jio's network.
Airtel says that this can cut the IUC payment to the Jio dependent company. However, Jio has denied the allegations, saying that 15-20 seconds is the standard adopted worldwide.
This issue was discussed in the TRAI meeting on 6 September. In this meeting, Airtel, Vodafone Idea, BSNL and MTNL supported the talk of having a ring time of at least 30 seconds to answer a call.
However, Jio had said that the ring time should be 25 seconds, Jio claimed that 20 seconds is enough for a party to answer a call and having more time means waste of spectrum resources.
A senior source of Jio told the newspaper that there is no change in the attitude of Jio since the meeting on September 6 and the company has not received any instructions from the regulator about this. TRAI has issued a consultation paper seeking suggestions in this regard and has asked the telecom companies to reach a consensus before finalizing this paper.