The Hindu Business Line : TRAI may bat for mobile customers

New Delhi April 9 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India could come to the rescue of thousands of mobile phone customers who have been disconnected by operators despite submitting valid verification documents to their respective operators.

Consumer groups have written to TRAI seeking its intervention after a number of mobile consumers complained that the operators left them in the lurch over the past few days.

Mr Anil Kumar of Telecom Watchdog said, "We have written to TRAI citing examples of how consumers who have submitted valid papers have been disconnected. There are quite a few such subscribers on whose behalf we have approached the telecom regulator."

When contacted, senior TRAI officials said that they were examining the complaints and will intervene if required.

Cellular operators have disconnected almost 8-10 million subscribers over the past few months after the Department of Telecom issued an ultimatum to verify all the subscribers by March 31 or pay a fine of Rs 1,000 for each unverified mobile user.

Audit team

DoT, meanwhile, is forming a vigilance team to undertake audit of the operator's subscriber base across the country. The audit team will pick up subscribers at random to check if all the documents are verified.

Reliance Communication has had to disconnect nearly 4 million subscribers for want of proper verification papers. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have also not completed about 10 per cent of their subscriber base.

Mandatory check

Subscriber verification was mandated by DoT after the security agencies expressed concern that mobile phones were being used by anti-social elements and terrorists for communicating with each other. The security agencies in the past have unearthed hundreds of connections issued by an operator under a single name. The forced disconnections by the operators could have an impact on the subscriber growth numbers in March, which is expected to be released by the industry over the next one or two days.

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