Reliance Jio Infocomm has filed the tariffs of its latest offer – Dhan Dhana Dhan – with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, turning the focus to the views of the sector regulator, which had scrapped the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco’s previous plan.
“The plan was filed last (Monday) evening. Jio had till the end of the week to file it,” a person familiar with the matter told ET.
Jio didn’t respond to an emailed query on if and when it had filed the tariff plan for its Dhan Dhana Dhan offer, which offers 84 days of services for a recharge of Rs 309 or more. Trai Chairman RS Sharma didn’t comment on Jio’s latest offer.
“Telcos can make plans and file within seven days, so several hundred plans come to us, but I won’t comment on any individual plan,” Sharma said. “Whenever telecom companies file a plan, we examine it and decide on it – it’s the normal procedure, so I can’t comment on a plan or its nuances.”
Earlier in April, Trai ordered Jio to withdraw its Summer Surprise offer, which also offered three months of complimentary voice and data for one month of recharge of Rs 303 or more, saying the plan did not fit into its regulatory framework.
India’s largest telcos allege that Trai violated its own rules by allowing Jio to offer successive promotional offers after starting services in September. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have already contested Jio’s previous free offers in court and the telecom tribunal, claiming that they violate rules.
The telecom tribunal asked the regulator to revisit its decision clearing Jio’s promotional offers. The telecom department also pulled up Trai for allowing successive promotional offers, saying it is hurting government revenue and could affect the telcos’ repayment of debt.
Market leader Airtel has already termed the Dhan Dhana Dhan offer similar to Summer Surprise, calling it “old wine in a new bottle.”
Trai’s scrapping of the Summer Surprise offer was an indication that the regulator had begun to see Jio’s promotional offers as a drag on the industry’s revenue, JPMorgan said in a report.
“New free offers from RJio could invite greater scrutiny from TRAI/department of telecom (DOT) and may not be easy to push through,” JPMorgan said.
Jio had gained more than 100 million subscribers by March and said it also managed to get 72 million of them to opt for paid data services, riding on its first two promotional offers – Welcome Offer and Happy New Year – which stretched cumulatively from September 5 to March 31.
Reliance Jio goes in top in india.. But other companies face loses