Bharti Airtel has moved the telecom tribunal against Reliance Jio Infocomm, asking it to restrain the Mukesh Ambani-owned company from providing free services, including those offered under its ‘Summer Surprise’ offer that was withdrawn on order from the sector regulator.
Lawyers of Jio objected to Airtel’s application, saying it was meant to confuse issues.
Airtel, through an application filed on Thursday, objected to alleged delays from Jio’s end to implement regulator Trai’s order to stop Summer Surprise offer, which provided free voice and data for three months for a charge of Rs.303.
Ramji Srinivasan, counsel representing Reliance Jio, claimed that Airtel’s plea was not maintainable since it is raising an entirely new/different point, and is only filed to confuse the issues.
While Jio has been coming up with new ways to give free data to lure customers, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have been upping the ante by giving additional data benefits to retain customers.
Both sides have also taken legal and regulatory recourses to curtail one another. On Wednesday, Jio had asked Trai to take “strongest action” and levy “highest penalty” on the trio for violating licence rules, telecom tariff orders and mobile number portability (MNP) guidelines.
By Baishakhi Dutta
