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NEW DELHI, Aug. 29

THE cellular industry has renewed its plea to the pre-paid customers to present their identification papers before August 31, failing which their service will be disconnected.

Issuing a statement on behalf of the industry, Mr Sudarshan Banerjee, CEO, Hutch - Delhi, stated that the cellular industry had taken the lead to address the national security concerns due to non-identification of pre-paid mobile subscribers. The Government had asked all cellular operators to get verification done for all their existing pre-paid customers by July 31. The deadline was later extended to August 31.

``The new customers have responded positively to the move and are readily presenting their identification papers for verification in Delhi as well as in the rest of the country. However, the challenge facing the industry is getting the existing customers to give their identification details. Efforts in this direction such as sending SMS messages, and making individual calls have met with some success; however, many customers have not come forward with documentation,'' he noted.

Mr. Banerjee pointed out that significant amount of resources have been invested by the cellular industry to align with the Government and Department of Telephone's (DoT's) directives for verification of pre-paid mobile customers.

Some of the initiatives taken by the industry include advertising in leading dailies and radio channels to inform the customers, educating trade and providing the necessary support to ensure that verification process is stringently followed.

``Though a Herculean task, we have already initiated partial suspension of all the pre-paid customers who haven't responded to the verification call. We are hopeful that such efforts will persuade the customers to come forward and give necessary details for verification to their cellular service providers and avoid any kind of inconvenience to themselves,'' he stated.

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