Vodafone moves Supreme Court, seeks access to cost model used to calculate IUC

NEW DELHI: Vodafone India has approached the Supreme Court seeking access to the cost model used by the telecom regulator to calculate how much one operator must pay another to connect calls between their networks.

Vodafone has filed a plea in the apex court contesting a Delhi High Court order that denied its request in the matter a few weeks ago, according to two people aware of the development.

“A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the division bench order of the high court,” one person said. The plea, filed on Saturday, is likely to be heard on October 4-5, after the apex court reopens, the second person said. Vodafone didn’t respond to an emailed query.



The matter is related to the interconnection usage charge (IUC) paid by the network from where a call originates to the operator where it is received. The charge is decided by the telecom regulatory authority of India.

Vodafone’s appeal stated that Trai must ensure transparency in the process and that the division bench had ‘erred in holding that the telco does not have a vested legal right to the information sought,’ one of the people said.

The UK-based carrier’s Indian arm appears to have taken a similar line of argument as it did when it approached the high court last month: that not sharing the cost model amounted to a violation of the principles of natural justice and that carriers were entitled to a transparent process in determining the charge.

IUC, currently 14 paise per minute, will be reduced to 6 paise a minute starting October 1 and scrapped from January 2020, Trai said on September 19. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which stand to lose about Rs 5,000 crore a year, criticised the regulator’s decision.