Mumbai: Reliance Jio<\/a> Infocomm will stop charging subscribers for local calls made to rival networks from Friday, when interconnect user charges (IUC) are scrapped.
Jio’s decision may dent its revenue, while helping Vodafone Idea<\/a> (Vi) and Bharti Airtel<\/a> save marginally on costs, analysts said.
Jio, with over 406 million users compared with over 294 million for Bharti Airtel and under 272 million for Vi, was a net revenue gainer from IUC, which was 6 paise a minute. The fee is paid by a telco from whose network a call originates to the operator on whose network the call terminates.
Jio is ending IUC for all domestic voice calls, as per directions of the Telecom Regulatory Authority<\/a> of India being implemented in the country from January 1, the telco said in a statement on Friday.
Vi shares gained 4.11% to Rs 10.64, while Airtel fell 1.3% to Rs 509.30 at the close on the BSE on Thursday. Jio’s parent company Reliance Industries dropped 0.5% to Rs 1,984.65.
The scrapping of IUC ends the calling party pays regime that was introduced in 2003. Soon after starting services in September 2016, Jio, then a net payer of IUC, pushed Trai<\/a> for a zero-IUC regime, which was opposed by Airtel and Vi. Trai first ruled moving to zero IUC from January 1, 2020, but deferred implementation by a year.
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