Jio shoots off another letter in escalating spat with COAI

Reliance Jio on Monday escalated the war against telecom association Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), saying the body was spreading patent falsity in denying its press statements directed against the telco.

In a strongly-worded letter to the COAI, its second such communication in a week, Jio said the industry body’s veiled references to it as being the sole beneficiary of Telecom Regulatory of India’s (Trai’s) regulations were not lost on anyone.

“Jio strenuously denies the correctness of the assertion that the press release was not directed against any particular operator. The patently falsity of this statement is apparent on a plain reading of the press release, which is rife with references to ‘one operator’ said to be the sole beneficiary of Trai’s regulatory interventions,” Jio said.

The letter, addressed to COAI Director General Rajan Mathews, further said the identity of the operator was also not left in any doubt in the press release, which in claiming that ‘Trai has copy pasted the demands of this one operator’ attempted to underscore the assertion by a comparison of the views of Jio and the contents of the Telecom Tariff Order.

Jio said the attempts of part of Mathews and the COAI to belatedly claim that the release was not intended to aggrieve any operator is an implicit admission of the patently false and defamatory nature of the press release. Jio is a member of the COAI.