Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) has written to Cellular Association of India (COAI), to consult and seek opinion of all the association members on key policy issues.

RJIL is a member of COAI, which represents GSM operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. The operator’s letter to the association has come in the wake of COAI writing to Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister of Communications and IT stating that private service operators should be allowed to enter into a spectrum sharing and trading pact with the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and not just a ‘single’ telco.

RJIL has claimed that the draft was not circulated to the company before it was issued and it was not aware whether this was circulated to all the executive committee (EC) members for their review and inputs. Further, RJIL has claimed that COAI’s letter has resulted in adverse media coverage for the company. RJIL clarified its stand on the subject of the letter by claiming that the company was not in talks with BSNL for exclusive intra-circle roaming (ICR) and that there is no exclusive or non-exclusive pact in place with BSNL for spectrum sharing. COAI in its letter had stated that the government should allow a level-playing field for all the private players. The association in its letter reportedly stated that the exercise should be conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner so as BSNL could be benefited from a competitive commercial offering allowing public resources equally to all service providers.