‘Airtel, Vi spreading false rumours about farm laws protest, alleges Reliance Jio; asks TRAI to act

New Delhi: As farmers continue their agitation on Delhi borders, telco war has broken in its backdrop. Reliance Jio has written a letter to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and accused its rival operators Airtel and Vodafone Idea of ‘spreading false and frivolous rumours’ over farm laws protest.

Jio has asked TRAI to take strict action against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for “unethical practices” and “unscrupulous violations” and to stop campaigns under which “false propaganda is being spread across the country to get some additional MNP port-ins” by “capitalising on the ongoing farmer protest in the northern parts of the country”.

In a letter to TRAI Secretary, Reliance Jio said its letter was in furtherance of its letter of September 28, 2020 “highlighting the unethical and anti-competitive MNP (mobile number portability) campaign being run by Airtel and VIL to capitalise on the ongoing farmer protests in northern parts of the country”.

“We submit that despite the above submissions, these companies continue to remain directly/indirectly involved in supporting and furthering the insinuations and false and frivolous rumours of Reliance being an undue beneficiary of the farm laws, for unethical pecuniary benefits in the form of induced porting of RJIL customers,” the letter said.

Jio wrote to TRAI, first on Dec 10

It said that Airtel and VIL “remain unabated in pursuing this vicious and divisive campaign through its employees, agents and retailers”.

“They are inciting the public by making preposterous claims that migrating Jio mobile numbers to their networks would be an act of support to farmers’ protests,” said the letter written on December 10. The letter was accompanied by pictures of “misleading and inciteful campaign” across Punjab and other northern states.

“We reiterate that in order to reap meagre gains in port-in numbers, these service providers are intentionally defacing RJIL by depicting it as being against farmers and projecting themselves as farmer friendly, while at the same time intentionally fanning the anti- government protests. ”

The letter said the campaign is not limited to northern states and “this false propaganda” is being spread across the country to get some additional MNP port-ins. The letter also contained “such campaigns in other states of the country like Maharashtra”.