Trai Nod to Jio Free Offer Till December 3

Clarifies tariffs offered by Mukesh Ambani firm not predatory

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday said Reliance Jio can offer its free promotional offer till December 3, also clarifying that tariffs offered by the Mukesh Ambani-led firm were not predatory or discriminatory.

This means new customers won’t be able to avail the offer after December 3 and Jio subscribers would have to pay as per the tariffs announced by the company. Customers who have subscribed before December 3 will enjoy benefits till December 31.

In its quarterly results, Jio said it might extend the period of free services in case its subscribers were unable to get adequate experience of seamless connectivity across the network because of interconnection congestion and the quality of service parameters are not as per the benchmarks desired by the Jio management.  

Jio had launched the commercial services on September 5 and also announced it would provide all voice and data services free till December 31. The incumbent telcos objected, claiming such offers could not be provided for more than 90 days.

“According to Reliance Jio Infocomm’s filing with the Trai, the Jio Welcome offer (JWO) will be available to all the customers for subscription till December 3. RJIL wishes to reconfirm that JWO benefits of free unlimited voice and data will continue to be available to all subscribers till December 31,” Jio said in a statement.

A Trai official also confirmed to Business Standard that Jio could offer the benefits till December 31.

Jio said consumers who cannot subscribe to its services till December 3 would continue getting opportunities to avail new offers and tariff plans.

It also said it had received communication from Trai stating the tariff plans offered by it were fully compliant with regulatory norms of IUC compliance, non-predatory and non-discriminatory. “This clearly establishes that all the tariffs offered by RJIL are in compliance with the prevailing regulations. A key feature of RJIL’s tariff packs is free voice calling for local, STD and national roaming for all times,” the company said.

The existing telcos, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, had met the Trai Chairman R S Sharma on September 30 and expressed their concerns over free the promotional offer by Jio, which they termed predatory.

In a letter to incumbent telcos issued on Thursday, Trai said, “The revised offer of free services by Reliance Jio Infocomm has been limited to 90 days, i.e., up to December 3 and therefore is consistent with the guidelines on promotional offers.”

 “However, the authority would continue to keep a close watch on the tariffs being offered in the market by all players including Jio,” the Trai letter said.

The incumbent operators had written to Trai on September 20, claiming Jio’s voice tariffs violated of Trai’s 30th amendment to TTO order. The amendment was made in 2004 and states that tariffs should be non-predatory, non-discrimatory and IUC compliant.

The incumbents also raised the point that if the interconnect usage charge (IUC) was 14 paisa per call, the tariff should be more than that. The operators had asked Trai to examine.

Reference - http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/trai-nod-to-jio-free-offer-till-december-3-116102001447_1.html