Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, the telecom offering that has declared an all-out war against the incumbents with its low cost offerings, today did a Munna bhai act wishing its rivals Airtel, Vodafone and Idea a ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’.
"Dear @airtelindia, @VodafoneIN, @ideacellular, Happy Valentine's Day. #WithLoveFromJio," Reliance Jio tweeted.
Notably, Jio is in locked in a bitter tussle with the three telecom operators for not providing it enough points of interconnection (PoI). The matter is now with the telecom tribunal.
Not one to lay low, Airtel returned the favour in a tweet that read: "Same feels @reliancejio! After all #HarEkFriendZarooriHotaHai."
Idea Cellular too replied to the wishes on its Twitter handle.
https://twitter.com/ideacellular/status/831398256844247041
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for not providing ample PoIs to Jio.
On Tuesday, after Bharti Airtel said it has provided 27,719 points of interconnect to Jio (over 35,000 including those for outgoing calls), Reliance Jio responded and said not more than 23,000 had been provided, resulting in 26 million long-distance calls from the Jio network failing everyday.
Bharti Airtel said in its statement that the points of interconnect provided are “well above the customer growth projection provided by Jio to Airtel. The capacity provided is ideal for serving over 190 million customers on the Jio network and is more than double of the 72.5 million total customers currently claimed by Jio”.
Jio claimed in its statement that Airtel’s statement was part of a “mischievous and motivated” campaign “to divert attention from its anti-competitive” actions.
the telecom commission, the country’s apex telecom policy body, has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to explain the rationale behind penalizing the country’s top three telcos (Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, and Airtel) to the tune of Rs 3,050 crore for not providing enough points of interconnects to Jio.
The two firms are also slugging it out at the Competition Commission of India, the country’s anti-trust law regulator. Late last year, Reliance filed a complaint with the commission, alleging anti-competitive action by the three telcos named above. Earlier this week, Airtel struck back, filing a complaint with the commission against Reliance Jio for “predatory pricing”.
Jio is offering free services till 31 March 2017, around six months after its launch.
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