Jio’s free voice services violated Trai tariff orders: Vodafone to Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: Vodafone India on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm’s free voice services violated tariff orders issued by the telecom regulator, which in turn were causing damage to India’s second largest telco.

However, Jio countered the company’s stand, arguing that the plea should be raised at the appropriate forum, namely the telecom tribunal or Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal ( TDSAT), in the same way as other incumbents – Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular – have done.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva will hear the matter on February 27.

Vodafone India argued that interconnection usage charges (IUC) form the floor price as per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai’s) tariff orders, and “one cannot go below that”.

The company argued that Jio was providing free voice calls and by continuing to do so beyond the promotion offer period of 90 days, it was violating IUC and tariff regulatory rules. It added that free plans can be offered as long as the weighted average of all other plans of a telco complied with the IUC floor price.

In response to the court question on subscribers opting for only free plans, Vodafone said telcos 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.

It added that all Jio plans had voice calls free, and it was also aggrieved by Trai’s inaction and its stand of allowing the alleged violation to continue.

Reliance Jio, on the other hand, opposed the maintainability of Vodafone's plea, and said the regulator had given the new entrant a clean chit.

Vodafone had moved the high court on February 1against Trai and asked the court to direct the regulator to “fully implement/ensure compliance of each and all regulatory and legal principles” laid down in the tariff orders.

The company had claimed that Trai has also failed to implement the telecom department’s (DoT) circulars, which say that all tariffs must be compliant with the IUC norms and should be non-discriminatory and non-predatory.