Reliance Jio in its latest salvo against the representative body accused it of favouring incumbent telcos.
The Cellular Operators Authority of India (COAI) has hit back at Reliance Jio's claims that the organisation is working in favour of the incumbent telcos.
Hitting back at the latest entree into the domestic telecom sector, COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said, "Reliancen Jio is labelling the established and well-performing operators who have served the cause of digital India for long years as Incumbent Dominant Operators (IDO). This is slanderous, mischievous, and suggests that the existing leading members are a cohort bent upon blocking entry of new operators on the basis of bald allegations."
On Sunday, according to a PTI report, Reliance Jio fired a fresh salvo at COAI alleging that its rules including voting norms were "overwhelmingly biased and lopsided" and framed to serve vested interests of three incumbent operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
Mathews said that none of the half a dozen new operators who entered in the last five years, had ever accused COAI or labeled the leading telcos as IDOs.
Further, he continued, saying, "Reliance Jio was presented with the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association, pursuant to their application for membership and was well aware of the governance structure and practices of the Association. No issues were raised at this time and they agreed to abide by these rules and regulations."
"It is surprising that Reliance Jio now raises certain issues as something new. We can only believe these are now motivated by a desire to tarnish the reputation and credibility of COAI in the light of certain representations made by COAI to various government agencies," he added.
Reliance Jio and COAI have been at logger heads before the former launched its services formally on September 5. In fact, one of the points of contention for COAI was that, according to it, Reliance Jio was essentially running "full commercial operations in the name of beta testing, thereby denying the exchequer of rightful revenue." Amid their issues, the COAI has written to the Telecom Regulatory of India (Trai) and the Prime Minister's Office too.
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