Mukesh Ambani's Jio slams Airtel's allegations of predatory pricing as defamatory

With Vodafone Idea yet to launch 5G despite being rescued by the Indian government, the Indian telecom space looks like a duopoly dominated by Reliance Jio and Airtel. The top two telcos are also competing in the broadband space through JioFiber and Airtel Xstream, with Jio increasing its market share from 17 per cent to 50 per cent in a year.

Now Airtel has accused Jio of using predatory practices, by offering TV channels along with its broadband service JioFiber.

Telecom battle spills over into DTH

• In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Airtel alleged that Jio's pricing was hampering the level playing field in the direct-to-home cable market.

• Airtel is currently the second largest player in the DTH market after Tata Sky, and also provides 147 live TV channels through the Airtel Xstream website and smartphone app.

• Slamming Airtel's allegations as a malicious attempt to defame it, Mukesh Ambani's Jio has carified that JioFiber doesn't offer any direct subscription for OTT or broadcasting services.

Jio lashes out at Airtel

• It also added that the JioTV plus app is simply used as an interface to collate OTT content and only acts as an aggregator for TV channels.

• Calling Airtel's complaint baseless, Jio accused it of protecting narrow interests.

• It has also accused Airtel of mixing different regulations to justify the predation charges.