Idea, Airtel seek stay on IUC reduction

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, India’s top and third-largest cellcos by subscribers respectively, have appealed to the Bombay High Court for a stay on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) decision to cut the interconnection usage charge (IUC) from 1 October, the Economic Times writes. The IUC is set to fall from INR0.14 (USD0.002) to INR0.06 per minute at the start of next month, before being eliminated completely from January 2020. The cellcos claim that incumbent operators such as Airtel, Idea and Vodafone will lose a combined total of INR50 billion annually as a result of the reduction.