Vodafone moves TRAI against Jio ‘Summer Surprise’ offer

Vodafone India has moved the telecom regulator alleging that Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) is continuing its ‘Summer Surprise’ offer, with the latter still promoting the scheme through text messages, and seeking its immediate intervention.

On Monday, Vodafone India shot off a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stating this as a blatant violation and disregard of the regulator’s advisory, sources close to the development said.

“RJio is continuing with this offer held as not meeting regulatory norms, in the garb of configuration changes. For the past three days, it has been promoting and luring customers to quickly recharge to avail the benefits of a non-compliant offer and also asking its retailers to communicate the same,” the letter, a copy of which was seen by BusinessLine , said. “Considering above, we request for TRAI’s immediate intervention and issuance of suitable directions to RJio for withdrawing the said offer on immediate basis and notifying the consumers about withdrawal of said offer from the date of advisory received from TRAI,” it added.

Vodafone opined that this was a “blatant violation and disregard of TRAI’s advisory”. Further, it paints a wrong picture to customers, of non-robust regulatory framework where non-complaint offers are allowed to be sold in market, the letter said, requesting TRAI to direct RJio to withdraw the offer on an “immediate basis”.

When contacted, Reliance Jio spokesperson said the telco in its press release on April 6 made it clear that the ‘Summer Surprise’ offer will be withdrawn as soon as it is operationally feasible, in compliance with the regulator’s advice.

“All the customers who have subscribed to the ‘Summer Surprise’ prior to its discontinuation will remain eligible for the offer. We are pained to note such continued and deliberate attempts by competitors to create unnecessary confusion in the market,” the spokesperson said.

Vodafone, however, declined to comment on the letter it sent to the regulator.

Jio was expected to start charging for its services from April 1. However, it extended the deadline to buy the ₹303 plan and other plans until April 15.

“We continue to see Jio as a grand experiment in extreme capitalism; an experiment where a company, backed by the balance sheet and cash flow strength of the parent, has unleashed what we call brute force of capital without necessarily bringing anything by means of innovation or a new business model or strategy to the table,” Kotak Institutional Equities said in a statement.

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