The Digital Communications Commission — the highest decision-making body of the Telecom department — has approved imposing penalty on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for not providing points of interconnection to Reliance Jio. However, it has asked sectoral regulator TRAI to review the ₹3,050 crore penalty.

“The DCC has approved imposition of penalty on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea…However, the Commission has decided to send the recommendations back to TRAI for their view on revising the quantum,” an official source said.

TRAI had in October 2016 recommended the penalty on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea for violating their licence agreement and denial of interconnection to new player Reliance Jio. While the penalty recommended for Airtel and Vodafone was ₹1,050 crore each, it was ₹950 crore for Idea. Vodafone and Idea have since merged to form Vodafone Idea, the largest telco in India.