The Hindu Business Line : `Prepaids' verification proceeds at slow pace

With just over 3 months left for the Government set deadline to expire, cellular operators have just about completed verification for 52 per cent of their subscriber base.

The Department of Telecom had asked all the operators to verify the details of all the cellular subscribers before March 31, 2007, in a bid to address concerns raised by security agencies.

Operators are disconnecting all those subscribers whose details such as address proof are not verifiable.

According to industry estimates, operators have pulled the plug off over 5 million users in the past few months.

Tata Tele ahead

According to the official numbers submitted by Apex Advisory Council for Telecom in India (ACT), of the 82 million pre-paid mobile users in the country, operators have verified 44 million subscribers by December 15, 2006.

While Tata Teleservices has completed verification of almost 98 per cent of its subscriber base, Spice Telecom has completed only 6.8 per cent of its base. Bharti Airtel has done 67 per cent, state-owned BSNL has completed 38 per cent and Hutchison Essar has verified the details of 62 per cent of the subscribers.

Going by the pace of the process being carried out, it is unlikely that all the operators will be able to meet the deadline.

The Government had ordered the operators to check the details of the users and disconnect all those found with inadequate papers.

There are more than 140 million mobile users in the country at present.

Mobile operators had formed the ACT to monitor the subscriber verification process followed by the various operators. ACT submits weekly reports to DoT giving the status of the number of subscribers verified and those disconnected.

The move comes after security agencies found out that the mobile services were being used by anti-social elements to communicate with each other for carrying out illegal activities in the country.

There have been instances where more than hundred connections have been issued based on a single identity.

Operators have been strictly told to counter check all such bulk connections.