New Delhi, Sept. 12 -- India's telecom regulator has asked Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd to explain why they removed their cheapest 1GB entry-level mobile plans, said four people in the know, amid concerns that low-income individuals relied on these for basic internet access.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) also asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to look into the issue and submit a report, one of the four persons cited above said. All spoke on the condition of anonymity.

While Jio said its recharge plan continues to be available only offline via Jio stores, Airtel cited internal assessment and usage analysis, among other reasons, for discontinuing the plans, according to two people cited ...