Reliance Jio has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) seeking “strongest action” and “highest penalty” against Bharti Airtel, alleging “gross violation of extant telecom laws.”

The Mukesh Ambani-led firm has alleged that two of the offers recently introduced by the country’s largest telecom services provider were not compliant with TRAI’s order on transparency in tariffs.

Bharti Airtel, according to Reliance Jio, had not only grossly exaggerated the value of data in a promotional offer, but had also misrepresented the benefits under the offers, arbitrarily discriminated between subscribers and placed misleading tariff advertisements.

“We are not aware of any such complaint,” a Bharti spokesperson told The Hindu when asked about the issue. “All our tariff plans are fully compliant with the prevailing regulations.”

In a letter written last week, Jio said the free calls under Airtel’s Special Tariff Voucher 345 were not unlimited as Airtel had implemented a FUP (fair usage policy) of 300 minutes per day or 1,200 minutes per week, post which all calls were chargeable.

“Therefore, these prepaid packs do not provide unlimited free calling to customers. This fact is not discernible from the advertisements of Airtel and neither does Airtel specify in the advertisements that such limitations apply or are conceived as part of the terms and conditions,” Jio claimed.

It further alleged that FUP-related information was provided only by call centre executives of Airtel and that too when the issue was specifically highlighted to them.

On Airtel’s advertisement of ‘Free data for 12 months, worth ₹9,000’ on the prepaid STV of ₹345, Jio claimed that the data benefits were available only on paying ₹345 and therefore, could not be termed free.

“Further, post expiry of the data benefits in the pack, the subscriber is charged at pay-as-you-go rates, therefore, the free data claims are grossly misleading,” it said.

Arguing that the value of 3GB data (at the rate of ₹450 a month) would work out to only ₹5,400 over 12 months, Jio said that the benefits are therefore “much lower” than Airtel’s claim of ₹9,000.

Jio has accused Airtel of arbitrary discrimination between subscribers of the same class, saying that the offer (free data for 12 months) can be availed only by subscribers with new 4G handsets, that is 4G handsets that have previously not been used on Airtel’s network.

This “arbitrary classification” by Airtel is a gross violation of the Telecom Tariff order 1999 Section IV (Transparency and Consumer Protection), Jio said.