Jio Strongly Objects To Airtel’s Ads, Terms Their Offers As Misleading; May Soon Buy Chinese 4G VoLTE Feature Phones In Bulk

This time, it is Jio, who has launched a preemptive strike against Airtel’s advertisements and offers. In a strongly worded letter addressed to TRAI, Jio has described Airtel’s offers as ‘misleading’.

Meanwhile, in a related news, Jio is looking to bulk-buy Chinese 4G VoLTE feature phones for even deeper penetrating Indian market.

It seems that in the coming days, Jio will reduce the entry-barrier for 4G adoption, and may induce another new wave of new subscriptions, which has stagnated for a while.

Jio To TRAI: Airtel Is Misleading Customers

Jio has done an in-depth research and postmortem of Airtel’s current offers, and have launched an all round attack against them.

In a letter written to TRAI, Airtel has said, “Airtel is providing the headline benefits only to a very specific group of new subscribers, i.e, the subscribers that opt to be Airtel’s subscriber with a 4G connection and also possess a 4G handset..”

Pinpointing to some recent offers and schemes by Airtel, Jio has said that they “are being marketed in (a) misleading manner in gross violation of extant telecommunication laws”.

Jio has targeted Airtel’s Rs 293 and Rs 449 offers, wherein customers are required to recharge for that amount initially, and then get 1 GB per day for 70 days, along with unlimited voice calling and SMS plans.

These recent offers by Airtel were strikingly similar to what Jio has offered under their Prime and Dhan Dhana Dhan offers.

Airtel has responded by saying, “These allegations are nothing but a continuation of Reliance Jio’s standard ploy of blaming others for all its problems, including network deficiencies..”, adding, “These allegations are nothing but a continuation of Reliance Jio’s standard ploy of blaming others for all its problems, including network deficiencies..”

Interestingly, this battle on advertisements and promotional schemes have been going on for some time, between Airtel and Jio.

Last month, Airtel had complained that Jio is violating TRAI rules under Dhan Dhana Dhan offer; and before that, in March, Jio had complained to TRAI about Airtel’s fastest network advertisement, which was then ordered to be withdrawn.

Jio Will Buy Chinese 4G VoLTE Feature Phones In Bulk

Reports are emerging that Jio is now actively looking for Chinese manufacturers to buy 4G VoLTE feature phones in bulk, in order to support their aggressive expansion plan in India.

As per reports coming in, Jio is in talks with some brands like “Techchain, FortuneShip and Uniscope”, for bulk buying cheap 4G, VoLTE bases feature phones.

Some analysts have already predicted that in case Jio introduced cheap, sub-Rs 2000 4G handsets in India, then it can prove to be a game-changer for them.

We had earlier reported that the growth of new 4G users have become saturated, as almost everyone who has a 4G handset is now either on Jio or any other network.

The problem is that not every has a 4G handset, and this is the #1 obstacle for Jio and other telecom players as of now. Right now, Lava 4G Connect M1 is the cheapest 4G VoLTE feature phone in India, priced at Rs 3,333.

Jio has refused to comment on this news.