NE service providers critical of DoT notification

A recent notification from the department of telecommunications (DoT) has sent mobile service providers in the North-East into a tizzy.

The notification, which aims at putting in place a stricter verification process for new as well as existing customers, is feared to slash, at least pre-paid customer base, by more than half.

The DoT notification, dated October 20, had asked all the mobile service providers operating in North-East and Assam circle (NESA) to undertake, within 3 months, a re-verification exercise for all existing customers and to put in place a new process of verification for new customers.

The notification specifies a set of new documents that need to be furnished by existing as well as by new customers in North-East as proof of identity and address.

The purpose is to make verification of customers more stringent in view of concerns expressed by security agencies that militants were using mobile phone connections for their activities.

“As per the telecom industry’s estimates, nearly 75 per cent of pre-paid customers will not be able to furnish any of those documents, hence all those connections would go out of the mobile loop,” a senior official of a privately owned telecom company told Business Standard.

The North-East has around 20 million mobile subscribers and out of that, 70 per cent of them are pre-paid customers.

Telecom companies are facing a peculiar situation as well. Connections of customers who fail to furnish required documents afresh will have to be disconnected.

And if disconnections take place on a large scale, as is being estimated by telecom companies, there might be a social unrest as mobile phones have now become almost a part and parcel of daily life of every person.

Also, large scale disconnections would mean scaling down of business by the telecom companies in NE, which would again hit the livelihood of lakhs of people associated with mobile telephony business and the economy of the region.

“If we are to disconnect 75 per cent of our connections, that would surely have a wider ramification across the economy of the region.

Telecom companies said that unlike in the case of Jammu and Kashmir (a similar notification has also been issued by DoT for Jammu and Kashmir) where permanent resident certificate is acceptable as an identity proof, no such North-East specific document, such as certificate from Gaonburha (village headman) or from tribal village councils, has been specified in the notification, thus making documentation part a daunting task.

“Documentation has now become a huge issue for ordinary people. Not all possess passport or driving license, or for that matter any of the new set of documents notified by DoT. As done in the case of J&K, a region specific document for identity proof should have been included in the list of documents,” the official said.

Secondly, the DoT notification says that voter ID cards of post 2008 can be accepted as an identity proof. Here again North-East is at a disadvantage as compared to J&K, as voter id cards have not been issued post 2008 in North-East, thereby further restricting the documents available with subscribers.

In case of Assam, the election commission had never issued voter ID cards.