Jio, Airtel indulging in predatory 5G pricing: Voda Idea

Vodafone Idea has accused Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel of predatory pricing with their unlimited 5G offerings. Vodafone Idea has called upon the telecom regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to act against Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel saying that they being significant market players cannot offer 5G for free and that too for an unlimited time, The Economic Times reported.

TRAI has sought responses from Jio and Airtel and both of them have denied the allegations levelled by Vodafone Idea and said that they cannot be called out for offering predatory pricing as 5G currently has a very small user base.

Not free

Both of them have also argued that they are not offering 5G for free as it is being given out as part of 4G packs and added that cost of providing 1GB of 5G data is cheaper than that of 4G. In 2016, after the launch of commercial services by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea had accused Jio of predatory pricing and now Jio has grown to become the largest telecom player in the country. Jio and Airtel have been expanding their user base since then at the expense of Vodafone Idea by offering 5G services while, Vodafone Idea has not announced any timeline of launching 5G services as it is burdened by financial stress.

Accusations and allegations are not tnew in the telecom sector. In 2016, after Jio got the licence, Airtel and Vodafone accused the company predatory pricing. For a long time after that, Jio was offering its services for free.

Even recently, Airtel accused Jio of offer several TV channels on its Jio Fiber broadband service, specifically the IPL matches,  for free.

A tariff is considered to be predatory if the company offering the price has over 30% market share.