Trai Chairman R S Sharma on Friday said the telecom regulator has advised Reliance Jio to stop ‘complimentary’ service offer as it was not in accordance with the regulatory framework.
“We examined it and found that it was not in accordance with regulatory framework, so we advised them to stop it,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman RS Sharma told the news agency.
The regulator yesterday asked Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio to withdraw the three-month ‘complimentary’ offer of unlimited data usage and free calls on payment of a minimum Rs 303.
The order came days after Jio announced that it has clocked 72 million paid users and is extending its one-time Rs 99 payment membership programme Prime for 15 more days till April 15.
Reliance Jio said it accepts Trai’s decision and is in the process of “fully complying” with the regulator’s advice.
Trai had previously found nothing wrong with its extended promotional offers of free data and voice that had helped Jio clock 100 million customers. Of these at least 72 million opted for paid services.
Trai Secretary Sudhir Gupta said that the regulator had asked Reliance Jio to explain how its Summer Surprise offer fits into the regulatory framework, but did not find the operators’ response satisfactory.
“On April 1, we had asked Jio for certain details (of the complimentary offer) and had called them on April 5 for a discussion. We asked them how the three-month complimentary benefits fit into the regulatory framework, and the explanation given by Jio to us was not satisfactory,” he said.
He clarified that while the previous free offers had been made under a ‘promotional plan’, the Summer Surprise offer was described by the company as special benefit given to existing tariff plan which was not “fitting into the current regulatory framework”.