Boycott Jio: Reliance accuses Airtel, Vodafone Idea for spreading false rumours

Farmers protest sparks telecom war. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to take strict action against Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel for resorting to ‘unethical’ ways, spreading rumours that Jio will gain from the three agricultural bills passed by the Parliament.

A few days ago, the farmers protest called out to boycott services offered by major corporate bands, including Adani and Reliance.

However rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea(Vi), have refuted the charges calling it “baseless”.

In a letter to the Trai, jio blamed Airtel and Vi of launching a “vicious” campaign . The telecom company said that “large number of port requests” , wherein the customers are citing this as the sole reason for porting out Jio without any complaints or other issues related to its services.

“This is further to our aforementioned letter dated 28 September 2020 highlighting the unethical and anti-competitive MNP campaign, being run by Airtel and Vi to capitalize on the ongoing farmers’ protests in the northern parts of the country,” the letter by Jio went on to add.

Meanwhile Airtel has termed the charges levelled against it by Jio as “baseless”. “Despite being provoked by some competitors who we know will go to any length to make baseless allegations, adopt bullying tactics and use intimidatory behaviour we have always conducted our business with character and transparency something that we are deeply proud of and known for,” Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Vodafone India, now Vi, also issued a statement to that effect saying, “Vi believes in doing business with ethics. These are baseless allegations against us to malign our reputation. We strongly refute such irresponsible comments on us.”