After failing to get a favourable decision from the telecom regulator, Bharti Airtel has knocked on the doors of the Competition Commission of India seeking respite from Reliance Jio’s free services. In a complaint filed recently, Airtel said that Reliance Jio’s tariff plans are predatory and adversely effecting competition.
“The offering of free service by Reliance Jio is adversely affecting competition as the customers are being enticed to free services without regard to the consequences to the health of telcom industry.
“The strategy of RJIL is to bind the customer to free voice and minimise competition, including eliminating competition from smaller players, to gain a higher market share,” Airtel said in its note to CCI.
“Once RJIL obtains a higher market share, it would likely increase the costs or even charge for voice calls since competition will be limited and the customer will be left with lesser number of service providers to choose from,” the note, seen by
Airtel has taken the case to CCI after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that it found no violation on the part of Reliance Jio.
RJio had launched its services in September whereby it offered free voice and data services for three months under a welcome offer.
However, in December the company launched another scheme called Happy New Year offer allowing its existing and new users to continue to get voice and data services for free. However, it limited the free data usage to 1 GB per day.
Trai ruled that the RJio schemes were valid. Rjio’s free offer is unsettling the incumbent operators. While Airtels’ third quarter profits dipped by nearly 50 per cent, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are exploring a merger to stay afloat.
A Reliance Jio spokesperson said, "This latest salvo by Airtel is a clear ploy to divert attention from its own violation of licensing conditions by having denied adequate POIs to Jio and the already announced censure proceedings by the TRAI against them. Airtel is also acting against consumer interest by stridently opposing the ‘free voice’ benefit that Jio has been able to provide customers due to its superior next generation IP-based technology."
"All tariff plans of Jio have been found to be non-predatory by the regulator, so the question of our offerings being predatory does not arise. India’s telecom sector has tended to progress due to disruptive innovation brought in by a newcomer, but unfortunately, the incumbents led by Airtel have always tried to block such initiatives," the spokesperson added.