Tata Teleservices has accused Reliance Infocomm of anti-competitive practices by locking in customers of its limited mobility services for a period of three years.

In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Tata Teleservices said the Reliance Infocomm offer "constitutes a major barrier to growth of the WLL (wireless in local loop) services in India and destroys competition in the services and restricts the freedom of the consumers from shifting from one service provider to another".

Under the Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer offer, Reliance Infocomm charges customers Rs 3,300 for signing up and Rs 600 a month for three years. This includes call charges and handset.

Reliance Infocomm executives said this particular tariff scheme was cleared by Trai and if there were any issues they could be taken up with the regulator.

The letter follows the recent arrest of Tata Teleservices executives in Andhra Pardesh on charges that the company was "illegally" wooing away Reliance customers.

Tata Teleservices has written to Trai that "if service providers and customers were to be threatened by such criminal proceedings, (they) would be able to tie in their customers for various lengths of time."

Tatas Teleservices further said Reliance Infocomm's efforts to lock in subscribers would generate supra-competitive profits for the company at the expense of customers.

The letter urges Trai to issue a directive that will review unfair schemes that adversely impact competition and the customer's right to freely migrate from one service provider to another.

Tata Teleservices also said Trai should bar all service providers that adopt means such as "locking" of handsets to dissuade subscribers from migrating to another service provider.