Telecom operators Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel have vehemently defended their priority plans, which came under regulator TRAI’s glare, and have argued that the offers have not deteriorated experience of other network users, nor violated any norms.

They said the subscribers of the plans constituted only a small portion of the overall customer base.

In a letter to TRAI, Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) said the benefit featuring network priority “is fully compliant to all applicable tariff orders and regulations” and that “TRAI has prejudged and prematurely concluded poor network service“.

“Capacity upgrades are initiated on sites with congestion to maintain an optimum level of internet speed both for our platinum and non-platinum customers.

“Hence, the impact of applying priority to an insignificant base of 1-1.5% users and that too for short duration of congestion, does not have any significant impact on the experience of non-platinum data,” Airtel has said.