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| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Reliance Jio denied claims that its ‘back-up broadband’ providing threatened the printed market, in a letter despatched to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The April 6 response, of which The Hindu has considered a replica, dismissed Bharti Airtel’s allegation that the inexpensively priced broadband providing — launched along side the Indian Premier League — was encroaching upon the tv broadcast market.
“A close reading of the complaint letter would clearly establish that Airtel’s sole grouse is that Jio Fiber is offering reasonable tariffs to customers,” Jio wrote within the response letter.
Bharti Airtel had argued that Jio’s broadband providing was bundling livestream of TV channels, threatening the DTH distribution market. Jio countered that offering such streams have been an appropriate business apply, and that stay feeds of a few of these channels come from broadcasters’ personal streaming apps, that are solely aggregated within the JioTV app.
Additionally, Jio argued, Bharti Airtel was mixing totally different regulatory regimes, as streaming channels stay on the web is an accepted apply. The agency argued that pricing its back-up broadband providing at a low fee was not grounds for Bharti Airtel to complain, including that customers must pay for 5 months prematurely.
“It is worthwhile to mention here that while RJIL believes that there is no need to regulate non-communication OTT services, nevertheless, if at all any change in position regarding regulating OTTs is to be taken, it would have to be a holistic decision encompassing the whole spectrum of OTT services and not just a particular subset,” Jio mentioned.
