Reliance Jio-COAI war of words heats up

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio on Monday escalated the war against the telecom association COAI, of which it is one of the members, saying the body was spreading patent falsity in denying that the recent press statements were directed against it.

In a strongly-worded letter to the Cellular Operators Association of India or COAI - its second such communication in a week - Jio said that the industry body's veiled references to it as being the sole beneficiary of TRAI's regulations were not lost on anyone.

"RJIL 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 recent regulatory interventions," Jio said.

The letter addressed to COAI Director General Rajan Mathews said that the identity of the operator was 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 RJIL and the contents of the TTO (Telecom Tariff Order).

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