Reliance Jio has sent a fresh complaint to the telecom regulator alleging that rival operator Airtel has been misleading users and discriminating subscribers through a new tariff offer.
According to the complaint note by RJio, “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 posses a 4G handset. 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,” the RJio note to TRAI said.
The complaint is related to a new offer by Airtel, called the ₹293 plan and ₹449 plan. RJio has also alleged that Airtel was also discriminating between subscribers by offering more benefits to new users with new 4G handsets.
Responding to the RJio complaint, 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 companies 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 merely offering simple discounts to their own customers to retain them. In fact, it is Jio that that has been blatantly disregarding all guidelines and directions of TRAI.”