Curb Reliance Jio’s ’Tsunami Of Free Traffic’ Says Airtel in Telecom War

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, Sep 10, 2016 : Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio was never welcome among other telecoms. With vast amounts of cash facilitated by the oil empire of India’s richest man, Reliance Jio was wryly described by competitors and its owner as a 20 billion dollar start-up.

Today, after months of threats, complaints and accusations that were shared through written complaints - including to the Prime Minister’s Office - the top executives of India’s biggest telecoms came together in a room to try and hammer out their differences.

Jio launched officially on Monday to a frenzied demand forged by its rock bottom data prices and an offer of  pay-for-nothing till December 31. Other carriers, Reliance alleges, have tried to freeze it out by making it impossible for Jio users to connect to their networks. So a Jio user calling an Airtel number, for example, is often out of luck.

Today’s session was mediated by TRAI, the telecom regulator. There were representatives of Jio, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and other smaller telecoms. Not allowed was the industry association of  Operators Association of India or COAI. The group counts Jio as a member, but has united other telecoms against it, who have together lobbied the government for penalties against it.

"COAI has been kept out of the TRAI meeting at the insistence of RIL Jio, and TRAI  acquiesced to their demand in an unprecedented manner," said the lobby group, alleging Reliance’s considerable power  holds unfair sway.

"Yes, the invitation didn’t come to us but since the meeting was based on us and we are a stakeholder, we thought it was natural for us to attend," said the association’s head Rajan Mathew to NDTV.

Older telecoms allege that the ambitious Ambani enterprise has stolen both customers and valuable 4G or fourth-generation airwaves since it began offering free services in June, claiming to be testing its services while, in fact, it was was very  much in the game.

Airtel and the others say they don’t have the resources to open up or afford more points of interconnect which is how different networks physically link to each other. Airtel says it wants the regulator to find "a way to curb the massive asymmetric traffic to ensure that receiving networks are not abused by tsunami of free traffic."

Jio claims that in just one week in August - reiterated by Mukesh Ambani on September 1 during the Reliance group’s annual general meeting (AGM) -- five crore calls by Jio users failed to other networks.

It is a fight for justice for the Indian customers. Its not about Reliance, Airtel, Vodafone or Idea customer," said Mahindra Nahata of Jio who attended the meeting.

No compromise was accomplished. Another meeting is likely next week.