Protests Erupt on X against Reliance Jio; Users Rally to Port to BSNL

Ahmedabad : Under the hashtag “BoycottJio,” Saturday saw a boom of digital action on X (previously Twitter).  Effective on July 3 and July 4, this movement responds to a coordinated price increase by telecom behemoths Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone. For both prepaid and postpaid consumers, the sharp increases—from 10% to an astounding 25% across data packs—have caused general indignation among India’s mobile subscriber base, so affecting millions of people all around.

Currently holding around 100 crore people out of a total of 119 crore mobile subscribers, the trio of telecom behemoths—Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone—rules the Indian market. Just Reliance Jio and Airtel have commands for the 87 crore Indian customer base. These businesses are expected to generate an estimated Rs 34,000 crore annually from their Indian user base alone with the tariff changes in place, according to Congress leader Randeep Surjewala. 

Driven by a demand to “port to BSNL,” the online protest on X has grown around disgruntled consumers advocating switching their cell services to the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Users contend that the price increases enforced by the big players unfairly affect consumers while supposedly allowing too high profit growth. Many movement speakers have highlighted what they view as Mukesh Ambani’s ostentatious spending—regular opulent weddings, for example—versed against what they describe as collecting these expenses from common people through more aggressive recharge programs.