Airtel accuses Jio of fraudulent practices in J&K; nonsense, replies Jio

Alleges fraudulent disguising of prepaid customers as postpaid, thus posing security threat

Amid the ongoing slugfest among them, Bharti Airtel has now alleged that Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) is "fraudulently disguising" its pre-paid customers in J&K as post-paid thereby causing a grave security threat while also violating the licence conditions.

In view of the gravity of the situation, Airtel has sought cancellation of Jio's licence for J&K service area.

In a letter to Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Airtel said the telcos have received instructions from Zonal Police Headquarters (Kashmir) to stop data services for all subscribers and stopping of all services for pre-paid subscribers. Post-paid subscribers may be allowed to use voice services.

However, Airtel said, "In the case of RJIL, the prepaid subscribers tactically and deliberately are being tagged as postpaid purely for its economic gain and competitive advantage, at the cost of national security and putting the lives of our security forces in danger, when they are battling an unprecedented situation in the Kashmir valley."

The Sunil Bharti Mittal-owned company said by virtue of the number of subscribers to whom RJIL continues to provide services, the entire intent of the Authorities to control spreading of information and communication by anti-national elements is being nullified.

Airtel said "RJIL, in gross violation of the license conditions, both in letter and spirit, is resorting to claiming 95% of its subscriber base (approximately 7 Lakh customers) as postpaid, even though such subscribers are actually prepaid subscribers."

Reacting to Airtel's letter, RJIL said, "The allegations made by Airtel are completely baseless, malicious and tantamount to wilful disparagement against RJIL. Each of the processes has been strictly followed by RJIL in accordance with the stringent norms and guidelines prescribed by the Department of Telecom and the J&K Government with regard to subscriber acquisition in the state."

Jio said the letter by Airtel is a clear demonstration of use of false propaganda when its competitors are unable to compete in the market place. Jio further added it is worthwhile to mention that it had escalated the issue of Airtel allowing incoming calls for their prepaid subscribers in the Kashmir valley despite written order on record from the Government of Jammu & Kashmir earlier this month to stop all prepaid services in the Kashmir Valley.

"This was a clear violation of Government Order completely disregarding security concerns of the Government, on which the Government had to intervene. The letter sent by Airtel to the DoT seems to be an act of retaliation, and nothing more," Jio added.

The letter by Airtel said that RJIL launched its services in the month of September 2016 and is providing high speed 4G mobile data and voice services, completely free, to lakhs of users. "RJIL has tagged these free offering as pre-paid in all other telecom circles. However, in order to bypass users, using their services completely free or by recharging, as post-paid customers," it added.

Airtel alleged that as per RJIL's own admission, there is no clear distinction between its postpaid and prepaid customers. "The key selling point of RJIL postpaid is that "it is same as prepaid"; and customer is symbolically tagged as post-paid but is required to recharge in the same manner as an actual prepaid customer," Airtel said. The letter further said the connections are instantly activated and no address verification or credit verification is being carried out for the said customers.

"There are no bills generated by RJIL for the customers and no grace period is provided to pay the bill. In fact, even if it is assumed that customer has opted for e-bill, the e-mail address of the customer is not being captured in RJIL's systems for delivery of the bill on e-mail," Airtel said.

Airtel also said as per their (RJIL) own marketing communication, alleged postpaid customers are on "Pre on Post plan", which itself is not allowed in J&K.

"We request your kind office to kindly intervene in the interest of national security and stop this blatant manipulation and violation of directions?RJIL has caused serious security breach and is therefore liable for punitive action," Airtel said.