NEW DELHI:
Reliance Jio on Friday took a dig at
Vodafone and
Idea Cellular
following their merger resulting in the creation of India's biggest telecom service provider.
A few hours before the news of the merger was made public, Idea Cellular tagged its soon-going-to-be-partner Vodafone.
Vodafone was only too eager to oblige. "Yeah @Idea. It's time we made it official," it replied as it tagged the website address of the newly-found joint venture - vodafoneidea.com.
Not willing to be left behind, Reliance Jio, whose aggressive entry in 2016 had intensified the competition in the Indian telecom market, too, joined the party.
"Bringing people together since 2016," the Reliance Industries' company tweeted in an apparent swipe at the merger.
In 2016, Reliance Jio's entry into the telecom market had posed a severe challenge in front of other legacy telecom providers, including Idea and Vodafone.
It would be safe to assume that one of the objectives of today's merger was also to thwart the ever-growing presence of Reliance Jio in the Indian telecom market.
Even as the bonhomie continued, the telecom operators’ party on twitter was ‘gatecrashed’ by none other than
Bharti Airtel.
Not happy with the services provided by either of the operators Idea and Vodafone, one of the customers expressed their willingness to switch operators.
Not willing to let a business prospect slip by, Airtel was quick to respond – “Hi! We’re delighted to hear you want to join our family,” it responded to the customer's tweet.
For those unversed with the details, the merger, which will have over 408 million subscribers, will topple Bharti Airtel from its current pole position.