Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has said that it is not inclined to grant a stay to Reliance Jio promotional offer. It has said that Jio's Happy New Year Offer will stay until March 31 only.
TDSAT has also directed TRAI to re-examine Reliance Jio's Happy New Year offer and submit a report within 2 weeks.
The order was about the reconsideration of the January 31 offers. It has ruled out the stay on the free offers by India's latest telecom service provider. Earlier, in February the telecom tribunal had asked TRAI to submit documents regarding Jio's free offers and specify whether the tariffs were a regular plan, base plan or special tariff voucher. This order was made following an appeal by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.
Incumbents Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular had filed a petition, where they alleged that the TRAI had erred in allowing Reliance Jio regarding its promotional offer. The interim relief had sought a stay on TRAI order where it cleared Jio's Welcome and Happy New Year offers.
The petition also sought a stay on the offer which will end on March 31. Idea and Airtel had moved the telecom disputes settlement court against the telecom regulatory body for allowing Jio to continue with its free promotional offers beyond the stipulated period of 90 days. Airtel had moved TDSAT in December last year and Idea followed it in January 2017.
Meanwhile, Vodafone India had also moved the Delhi High Court where it accused TRAI of acting as a mute spectator to Jio's regulatory guideline violations and interconnect user charge-related tariff norms. On February 21, Jio had announced that it will start charging from April 1. However, the offers presented by Jio are relatively much lesser than that of the rival companies.
Earlier, Trai had recommended a Rs 3,050 crore penalty on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea for not providing enough points of interconnection (PoI) to RJio.
The Telecom Commission, which is the country's biggest policy-making body for telecom, questioned the move and sought explanation on how the penalty had been recommended.
The rivals were, under the law, entitled to provide the PoI within 90 days and every one of them had complied. It also sought explanation on how Trai had calculated the PoI-congestion because the monthly average data had to be used but TRAI had data for a few days.
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