India's newest mobile operator Reliance Jio has called on telecoms regulator Trai to take action against incumbent operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for allegedly rejecting all mobile number portability requests for customers seeking to port to the operator.
Jio has asked Trai to fine the operators for rejecting the requests, and to revoke their licenses if they continue to do so, the Economic Timesreported.
In a letter sent to the regulator from Jio, the company alleged that the three companies have received a combined 201 MNP requests for porting out to Jio, and none have been completed.
The reasoning given by Airtel, Vodafone and Idea in the majority of cases was a “violation of contractual obligations,” but Jio has argued that the grounds for the rejections are invalid, the report states.
Furthermore the operators have not even specified which contractual obligations they claim have been violated.
The development comes shortly after Trai had to step in to resolve a dispute between Jio and the incumbent operators over points of interconnect for mobile roaming.
Jio has taken a disruptive approach to service pricing involving offering free voice calls and SMS and only charging for data, and is even offering data for free for a promotional period. This has the potential to further squeeze profits in an already over competitive market.