COAI acting as mouthpiece of dominant players: RJio

In a no holds barred attack, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio today lashed out at mobile phone operators body COAI, of which it is a member, for acting "maliciously" as "mouthpiece" of certain dominant incumbent operators having vested interests against the company.

Hours after the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) wrote to Prime Minister's Office (PMO) alleging free data and voice being offered by Reliance Jio under beta test was generating huge traffic using spectrum allocated for commercial use but no revenue came to government, the company shot of a letter to the association with copies marked to all the addresses the COAI letter had gone to.

Reliance, which is a member of the COAI, alleged that it received an email from COAI at 1505 hours today stating it would be sending a letter to the government on Jio's test service but the letter was actually submitted to the government officials "as early as 1250 hrs." "Your email therefore is a blatant lie and a fraudulent act," it said. "Prior to your email, Reliance Jio was not contacted in any manner whatsoever, as regards the intent or the contents of your attached letters to receive its views or comments." Reliance Jio being a core member of COAI ought to have been consulted and its comments and views duly considered as part of any representation that the association intends to set to any government official, it said.

COAI, it said, cannot unilaterally decide on sending out any such representations without following due process.

"COAI's act of sending the subject letters is yet another instance of abuse of process, which apart from being unethical also tantamount to breach of trust and gross violation of COAI's stated process in this regard." Reliance Jio alleged that COAI was "deliberately and maliciously acting at the behest of and as a mouthpiece of certain specific incumbent dominant operators, having vested interest against Reliance Jio." COAI, it alleged, is "openly promoting cartelisation in the guise of promoting the cause of the industry while acting perpetrating anti competition practices and misguiding and misinforming the government, statutory authorities and the consumers." Reliance Jio said the incumbent dominant operators are "wilfully and deliberately in violation of the licence conditions restricting interconnection augmentation (and) MNP." In yet another letter to the PMO today, existing operators under the aegis of COAI said the data traffic generated by such "so called beta tests" is rivalling the combined traffic of the rest of the operators who have been in operation for 15-20 years.

Reliance Jio said the contents of the COAI letter are "devoid of any merits and contains deliberate misstatements constituting misrepresentation of actual facts and are defamatory in nature." It warned COAI to refrain from continuing the perpetration of "misdeeds forthwith".Disclosure: Network 18, which publishes moneycontrol.com, is now part of the Reliance Group.