Reliance Jio’s “Happy New Year Offer” under TRAI scanner

Reliance Jio created a storm in the Indian telecom industry by launching its free data and voice services in Septmeber’16. The initial welcome offer was till 4th December’16, and included no cost services to all the customers. Although it was within the promotional guideline states by TRAI, the company had later extended the welcome offer till March’17 terming it as “Happy New Year Offer”, which has raised the eyebrows of both TRAI and other telecom operators alike.

Through a letter dated 20 Dec’16, TRAI had asked the firm to provide an explanation as to how the latest voice and data offer provided by Reliance Jio is not violating any of the existing promotional guidelines. However, Jio has been maintaining that the latest Happy New Year offer is substantially different from the Jio Welcome Offer (that commenced on 5 Sept’16) as 4GB of free data per day was being provided under the initial offer, while the same was capped at 1GB (under Fair Usage Policy) in the new offer. The firm also emphasized that tariff plans have multiple components and if even a single component is altered, it cannot be construed as the same offer or its extension.

However, it will be interesting to see how the competitors will react to Jio’s offer both with legal recourse and in competition.