DoT gets tough on user checks

Violating operators may have to pay Rs 50-cr penalty.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) is planning to impose a penalty of Rs 50 crore on operators that violate licence conditions by not complying with norms laid down for subscriber verification.

It may also look at termination of the licence issued to such operators, by giving them a 60-day notice.

The move follows the department issuing show-cause notices to the country's leading mobile operators for violating verification norms in the Haryana telecom circle by issuing multiple connections under a single name.

The operators include Bharti Airtel, Idea Mobile, Aircel Digilink, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices, and BSNL.

The show-cause notices were issued after the police in Kaithal, a district in Haryana, discovered during investigations into a murder case that retailers were allotting multiple connections by forging proof-of-residence documents.

The department has noted that while most of the operators had replied to the show-cause notice, they had failed to answer specifically on compliance with the verification norms laid down in their licence.

It argued that the operators had not carried out any special verification for bulk connections (when one individual is given multiple connections), had not devised an appropriate fraud management and prevention programme, maintained a record of check for verification, nor inspected bulk-user premises at regular intervals to ensure bonafide use.

They had also not maintained records of inspection, preserving them for a minimum of one year, it said.

On the other hand, the operators have raised numerous problems related to the issue of verification. In their replies to the show-cause, they contended that most subscribers did not have bonafide or requisite documents like a passport or ration card to attach with their application as proof of residence.

The operators have had numerous meetings with the department of telecommunications on this contentious issue, but are divided on the way to resolve it.

The Cellular Operators' Association of India has been pushing for random physical verification of about 10 per cent of the subscribers across the country. However, the Tatas have opposed the move.