Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Communication said it has sent ‘cease and desist’ notices to its rivals trying to win over its enterprise customers by creating fear about the company shutting down.
The development comes in the wake of announcements by the company that it was gradually shutting down its GSM and 3G network to focus on 4G services in the consumer space.
At the same time, the company had also made it clear that it would continue to focus on its enterprise business, which provides wholesale connectivity to companies and other organizations using fiber as well as wireless technologies.
It said the notices were sent “to a number of competitors in India, after learning from its Enterprise customers that these competitors are carrying out an illegal and malicious campaign, spreading misinformation and wrongly implying that Reliance Enterprise Voice services will shortly be discontinued.”
It said it “raised the issue” with regulatory authorities, but did not make it clear whether an official complaint was made.
RCom also said it had no intention of shutting down its India Enterprise Business, whether voice or data.
Reliance Enterprise Voice Services, such as PRI, Centrex, Toll Free, Cloud Telephony, SIP Trunk, etc., would all continue to be offered as before and in an uninterrupted manner, it said.
“It has been brought to our attention that some of our competitors in the India Enterprise Business space are indulging in a vilification campaign and spreading falsehoods about a disruption in our services. We would like to re-iterate that there is no truth to these messages and that we will continue to offer our entire bouquet of Enterprise Voice Services, just as before and with no changes,” RCOM-GCX said.
“The developments in our Consumer Wireless Business space will have no impact on any services provided by our India Enterprise and Global Cloud Xchange businesses. We are extremely excited about the growing business opportunities in the Enterprise space and continue to make investments to significantly enhance our operations, data centers and network infrastructure, in order to better serve our Enterprise Business customers across India and globally,” RCOM-GCX added
It said it is taking all necessary legal and other administrative steps to put a stop to this malpractice by the competition. “In the meantime, if you continue to receive any misleading communications from any other Indian telecom operator, please bring it to our attention,” RCOM-GCX said in a communication to its customers.
The company has fallen on hard times after the launch of 4G service dragged down data and voice prices in the country by 50%-90% in one year. RCom’s GSM and 3G service have become unviable due to the crash in prices.
The company, however, does have an agreement with 4G operator Reliance Jio that entitles it to buy 4G voice and data at wholesale rates from Jio and resell it to its customers.