Jio accuses Indian cellular trade body of foul play

India’s leading mobile operator group thinks the fact that the trade body lobbied on behalf of two others is proof of bias against it.

The trace body in question is the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which apparently wrote to the Indian government yesterday to lobby for some kind of assistance for its members: Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel. The thing is Reliance Jio is also a member of the COAI and presumably doesn’t want its competitors to get extra help, so it’s not happy about the letter.

Jio communicated its displeasure at considerable length in a letter of its own to the COAI, which it also shared with Indian media. It characterised the COAI letter as having alleged an unprecedented crisis in the telecom industry and said it was shocked that the letter was sent before Jio had had the opportunity to contribute. It went on to say this is typical bad behaviour by COAI, which calls into question just how shocked Jio actually was.

“Evidently, submission of this letter… is another manifestation of COAI’s prejudiced mindset completely laced with the one-sided thought process,” continued the letter, warming to its theme. “By such unwarranted behaviour COAI has just proved that they are not an industry organization but just a mouthpiece of two service providers.”

It then bangs on about all the things that were wrong with the letter, which amount to the aforementioned bias in favour of Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel. Jio clearly doesn’t want its rivals to get any help from the government, and even went so far as to insist that the disappearance of its two main competitors wouldn’t harm competition, which feels like a bit of a reach.

Neither the COAI nor the Indian state seemed to have responded to the letter at the time of writing, but they both seem to be stuck in the middle of an increasingly acrimonious war between Jio and the incumbents whether they like it or not. This is what happens when the state pokes its nose into the commercial sector too much. It created a very benign regulatory environment for Jio and is now staring at a potential monopoly. Nice one.