Airtel’s tariffs misleading and discriminatory: Jio
Months after it came out with its free services that disrupted the Indian telecom market and sparked a bruising tariff war, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd has accused market leader Bharti Airtel Ltd of offering misleading and discriminatory tariff plans.
In a letter addressed to sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) dated April 21, Jio said Airtel’s certain tariff plans and promotional offers such as first recharge of ₹293 and ₹449 offering free unlimited local and STD calls and 1 GB data per day for 70 days “are being marketed in (a) misleading manner in gross violation of extant telecommunication laws”.
Jio requested the regulator to impose the highest penalty on Airtel as well as direct the company to withdraw the tariff offer and promotional packs.
Jio in the complaint said that Airtel is violating Trai directions that say no tariff plan shall be offered, presented, marketed or advertised in a manner that is likely to mislead the subscribers.
“Airtel is providing the headline benefits only to a very specific group of new subscribers, i.e, the subscribers that opt to be Airtel’s subscriber with a 4G connection and also possess a 4G handset,” Jio said in the letter.
It added that all other “unwitting” new subscribers are not only provided with substantially lower data benefits of 50 MB in place of 70 GB, but the validity of recharge is also curtailed to 35 days from 70 days... and “post that they will be charged the exorbitant data tariff of ₹4,000/GB”.
An Airtel spokesperson said, “Bharti Airtel is in full compliance of all regulatory guidelines, including tariff orders. We categorically deny these allegations. Discounts are a standard lever in the arsenal of any business — be it e-commerce, telecom, insurance or aviation etc — and firms deploy these from time to time.
“These allegations are nothing but a continuation of Reliance Jio’s standard ploy of blaming others for all its problems, including network deficiencies. What’s even more ironic is that Jio itself offered free services for several months but is now pointing fingers at other operators, who are offering simple discounts to their own customers to retain them. In fact, it is Jio that has been blatantly disregarding all guidelines and directions of the Trai.”
Jio did not respond to an email seeking response.
When Reliance launched Jio in September, offering free data and voice calls, undercutting rivals and eroding industry profitability, telcos responded by taking up the matter to the telecom tribunal, accusing the regulator of killing competition by allowing Jio’s free services.
The annual revenue of Indian telecom firms declined for the first time since 2008-09 to ₹1.88 lakh crore in 2016-17 (from ₹1.93 lakh crore the previous year), and is likely to fall further to ₹1.84 lakh crore in 2017-18, CLSA said in a report released on April 7.