Telecom Operators Accuse Jio Of Violating Tariff Norms: Fact Or Sour Grapes?

Against the backdrop of Reliance Jio asking for additional intercommention points from incumbent operators, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Telenor told the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday that it was the new entrant that was violating the tariff norms.

"The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will look into the matter and revert as soon as possible," one of the company officials who attended the meeting said, based purportedly on what Chairman R S Sharma said during the 90-minute meet.

This is not the first time Jio has faced such obstacles in its way. Shortly after Mukesh Ambani announced that voice calls would be free for Jio customers, the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) sent a letter to Nripendra Misra, the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary, complaining that this would lower their revenues.

If there is evidence of Jio’s violations, TRAI should certainly take proper action against it. But if it’s the incumbents crying sour grapes, then it is simply disappointing.

The incumbents have one noteworthy advantage that Jio is yet to have – a large customer base. The top three, namely Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, have nearly 650 million customers between them. This gives them a ready base, for which Jio will have to fight.

As our editorial director wrote, they should welcome Jio’s intrusive entry, which will force the weaker players to exit, enabling tariffs to rise after a while.

(With inputs from IANS)