Big 3 telcos not allowing consumers to port: Jio

Jio says, the incumbents have rejected all valid MNP requests made between September 5-12

A fresh row has broken out between the Big Three telecom operators and Reliance Jio over number portability. Jio has written to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that the three leading telcos — Airtel, Vodafone and Idea — are preventing consumers from shifting to Jio.

In a letter to Trai Chairman R S Sharma, dated September 14, Jio said: “We wish to bring to your notice the illegal and perverse actions perpetrated by Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India by refusing to enable the porting of mobile number connections to Reliance Jio Infocomm.”

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio commercially launched its operations on September 5.

After this, the company wrote to the incumbents that it had completed mobile number portability testing and it was certified MNP-compliant.

The incumbents, Jio says, have rejected all valid MNP requests made between September 5 and September 12.

Jio’s letter to Trai says: “Almost all of these rejections have been made on the baseless and unsubstantiated ground of ‘violation of contractual obligation.’” As per Section 4 of the MNP regulations, all operators are mandated by law to facilitate porting requests by subscribers in a non-discriminatory manner.

Jio has alleged that all the operators have rejected the porting requests on vague and unsubstantiated grounds of there being a contractual violation.

However, when contacted, Airtel said it is processing all porting requests as per guidelines. A spokesperson for Vodafone also said the company has enabled MNP to consumers who wish to port to Jio.