COAI VOTING RULES FAVOUR INCUMBENTS: RELIANCE JIO

NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio on Sunday fired a fresh salvo at cellular operators body COAI alleging that its rules including voting norms are “overwhelmingly biased and lopsided” and framed to serve vested interests of three incumbent operators — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.

Mukesh Ambani’s recentlylaunched telecom venture has also sought an overhaul of Cellular Operators Association of India’s norms claiming that the “current voting mechanism does not accommodate the democratic principles of reasonableness, fairness, accountability and transparency”.

The voting norms of COAI would abysmally fall foul of the Competition Law for perpetrating anti-competitive activities, it added.

“RJIL seeks a thorough overhaul and amendment of COAI regulations by appointing a committee consisting of three retired Judges of the Supreme Court of India ... with provisions for adequate measures to prevent any abuse in future,” Jio said in a letter to COAI.

Jio said that the incumbent dominant operators (IDOs) have 68% of the total votes in COAI and control decision-making.

“The core member’s voting rights are based on adjusted gross revenues, with maximum number of votes per member capped at 7... The IDOs having a 60.84% marketshare command 7 votes each, totaling to 21 votes. Apart from the IDOs, there are four more members with a total of 10 votes. The IDOs command 68% of the total votes,” Jio said.

Jio further said that although each core member nominates one representative to the executive council of COAI, the voting in the council too follows the voting pattern of the members resulting in “entire executive council being usurped by the IDOs”.