Aggrieved By Free Voice Calls Of Reliance Jio, Vodafone Tells High Court
Reliance Jio’s free voice services violate the telecom regulator’s norms, Vodafone tells court.
Vodafone India on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it was aggrieved by the free voice services being provided by Reliance Jio as it violated telecom regulator TRAI's tariff orders.
Vodafone contended before Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva that inter-connection usage charges (IUC) form the floor price as per tariff orders of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and "one cannot go below that".
The company alleged that by providing the free voice calls and continuing to do so as a promotional offer beyond a period of 90 days, Reliance Jio was violating IUC norms and TRAI tariff orders and regulations.
Opposing the maintainability of Vodafone's plea, Reliance Jio said if the telecom major was aggrieved by TRAI's decision to give a clean chit to India, then it should be challenged before the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), as was done by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.
The court thereafter listed the matter for hearing on February 27 when it will hear arguments on maintainability of Vodafone's petition alleging inaction by TRAI against Reliance Jio for alleged violation of tariff orders and regulations.
During the day's hearing, Vodafone contended that free plans can be offered as long as the weighted average of all other plans of a telecom service provider (TSP) complied with IUC floor price.
To this, the court asked what if the subscribers opted for only the free plans.
In response, Vodafone said that telecom service providers have to tailor their plans in such a way that customers opt for other plans also as the operating costs have to be recovered as per tariff orders. However, voice calls are completely free across all the plans of Reliance Jio, Vodafone said.
India’s latest telecom entrant had on last date said that TRAI has held that its free offers to subscribers was perfectly legitimate.
Vodafone, in its plea, has sought a direction to TRAI to "fully implement/ensure compliance of each and all regulatory and legal principles" laid down in the tariff orders, directions and regulations by the regulator or any other authority as well as to ensure that Reliance Jio does not violate them.