Premium tariff offer: Voda Idea sees Red, takes on Trai in reply to notice on plan

Kolkata: Vodafone Idea has responded strongly to the telecom regulator’s concerns over its premium RedX tariff offer, saying they are not based on facts and that the 127,000 subscribers on the plan — not even 0.1% of its 4G user base — can’t hurt services for the rest.The company said the regulator had not stated that the plan’s priority network access feature was in violation of regulations and sought a personal hearing to represent its case appropriately.The telco said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India raised the issue eight months after the plan was introduced in November only because Reliance Jio had complained and it appears to have “prejudged” the matter.Referring to Jio’s entry in September 2016, Vodafone Idea said no concerns were raised when it disrupted the market by making voice calls almost free and sent data rates crashing to all-time lows, hitting the revenue and profit of other operators. “… Trai decided not to interfere on the action of a telecom service provider who introduced free or below-cost prices with unlimited or heavy daily usage packs on data and when the impact was exponentially large on consumers and industry,” Vodafone Idea said in response to the regulator’s questions on its plan. Such concerns over capacity constraints and quality of services were “far more material under those circumstances and were not raised then”, Vodafone Idea said.Trai, acting on a complaint by Jio, wrote to Vodafone Idea on July 9, asking whether the RedX plan’s offer of priority access to some would hurt the quality of services to other subscribers.77138232‘No Infraction of Any Regulations’“The concerns mentioned in your letter under reply are neither fact-based nor do they mention any specific regulation/clause in the tariff order,” Vodafone Idea said in its letter dated July 22.Jio had written to Trai on July 8, urging it to check whether Vodafone Idea’s RedX and Airtel’s Platinum plans complied with the regulatory framework or violated consumer interests.Trai maintains Jio’s complaint did not prompt its letter blocking Vodafone Idea’s RedX plan. At recent hearings on the matter in the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal, the regulator said it initially enquired into RedX on July 8.Vodafone Idea said nowhere had Trai pointed out that the network priority feature violated any regulation or tariff order.“There is no instance of infraction of any existing regulations/orders mentioned by Trai,” Vodafone Idea said.ET has reviewed a copy of Vodafone Idea’s letter, written days after the appellate tribunal stayed the regulator’s order blocking the RedX plan. Vodafone Idea had until July 22 to respond to Trai’s queries to determine whether the RedX plan caused any deterioration in quality of service to other customers.Trai had also suspended Bharti Airtel’s similar Platinum plan until completion of its inquiry and the company said it would comply.For full report go to https://ift.tt/wAMjnw

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