New checks may dial a wrong no

Tighter verification norms likely to affect subscriber additions.

The new prepaid mobile connection verification norms put in place from June 1 this year are likely to affect new subscriber additions, particularly in smaller towns and rural India where many people do not have proper proof of identity and rely on others to sign up for them.

Mobile phone operators, who have been asked to strictly comply with the new procedure for verifying a prospective subscriber's identity, say its actual impact will be known after June 14, the deadline for disconnecting new users whose verification fails to pass muster.

While this only applies to those who have signed up on or after June 1, millions of existing pre-paid users will also need to get their identity verified. This huge task has to be completed by October end this year.

The enormity of the exercise, which the operators admit is prompted by genuine concerns of national security, can be gauged from the fact that over 93 per cent of all mobile connections (average number of GSM and CDMA mobile connections sold in a month is in the range of 4-5 million) use pre-paid facility.

"We will have to start disconnecting new users at the end of the 14-day period if their verification does not come through. While this is an easy task, the issue of verifying the identity of three or five-year-old users may be more difficult. People change homes and do not update documents. We have got more time to address such users, but the overall concern over user additions is real," a senior executive of a leading GSM operator told Business Standard.