Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm has categorically denied the allegations levelled against it by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) that it was violating Department of Telecommunication’s (DoT) regulations under the guise of test connections.
Terming charges ‘malicious, unfounded and ill-informed’, RJio said that the COAI (of which Reliance is also a member but dominated by remaining three other players Airtel, Vodafone and Idea) was trying to ‘sabotage the entry of’ the mobile phone operator and ‘malign its name’.
RJio further said that it was not violating any license conditions in seeking an increase in the PoI from incumbent telcos.
RJio’s reaction came in the wake of COAI’s letter to Telecom Secretary JS Deepak in which it had accused the former of bypassing Department of Telecommunication’s (DoT) regulations by offering full-fledged services under the guise of test connections.
The COAI had also urged Deepak to immediately direct Mukesh Ambani-owned company to snap all connections provided to 1.5 million (15 lakh) users.
The COAI, in its written complaint, said that such trial services is in gross violation of rules and is choking their points of interconnect (PoI), thus causing bad services to their paid users.
The COAI had even threatened that its members will stop providing PoIs to RJio if action is not initiated. PoIs are essential to connect subscribers of two different networks to complete a call.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is yet to commercially launch its services, had launched trial services in December last year and its users are consuming 25-30 times more data than the average, because the services are free. The company is offering free connections and services to its employees as well as to general subscribers on invitation. Since the services have not been launched commercially, no tariff is being filed with the TRAI.
From last one month, telcos are slashing their 4G and 3G data prices to compete with RJio.
RJio is currently offering 3 months of unlimited data on its LYF smartphones. It is further expected to offer 1GB of 4G data for as low as Rs 80. Apart from its LYF smartphones, it has tied up with Samsung, Apple and HTC in offering 3 months of free data on their new phones.
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