Aadhaar eKYC can make new mobile connection cost zero: Sharma

Trai Chairman R S Sharma today said cost of activation of a new mobile connection can virtually come down to zero if electronic KYC of Aadhaar is implemented as authentication will be done digitally.
He said transaction costs are reduced substantially when Aadhaar is used as an authentication tool.
"If you are taking a mobile connection, currently the cost of activation of a mobile customer is Rs 150 because you have to fill a customer acquisition form (CAF), you have to give paper documents... If you use digital identity authentication, you can fill the customer form, digitally sign it and get your electronic KYC. So, essentially the cost is equal to zero," Sharma said at the annual growth Net summit here.

Sharma has made recommendations to the Department of Telecom (DoT) to this effect and the latter has "apparently" accepted it.
After the government finalises the norms, it will enable instant identity verification using Aadhaar card bio-metric data for a new mobile connection.
When operators issue new connections using the Aadhaar card, it would speed up the verification process as everything will be done online, Sharma hoped.

He, however, pointed to the big gap between technology development and its implementation.
Sharma as the UIDAI Director General and then as Department of Electronics and IT (Deity) Secretary had earlier recommended to DoT on making the whole process paperless.

This, however, met with scepticism in some quarters on security issues.
"Now, what is happening is one person who takes your PAN card is able to give 20 SIMs to different people and if they commit a crime, you will be caught. You are not aware who is using or misusing your PAN card to get the SIMs," Sharma explained.
Citing the example of Peshawar attack in Pakistan which killed many children, the Trai chairman said there were six terrorists who had SIMs that were issued to a woman.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked Reliance Jio and
other telecom operators to resolve their issue around inter-connection of mobile networks as it falls "within the purview of Trai" and is subject to "mutual agreement" of the parties concerned.

Jio has submitted to Trai that it will need 12,727 network inter-connection points for mobile services and 3,068 for STD call facility to start commercial services.
It has complained that incumbent carriers have provided it less than 4 per cent of the required ports in the first year, due to which over 65 per cent of calls to networks of the top three operators are falling through.
However, COAI maintained that the operators provided Jio sufficient capacity to support 10 times more customer base and congestion in its network may be due to free calls and data services.
Jio has requested Trai to take action against incumbent telecom operators for purportedly denying adequate capacity leading to call failures in its network during the trial run.

COAI further said its members, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, have given 400 inter-connection ports on an average which can support 15-20 million customers using telecom services on any other network.
During the test run, Reliance Jio is providing 90 days of unlimited calling and 4G data use on its network for free. It claims to have 1.5 million subscribers during this phase. The company has set a target of achieving 100 million subscribers within a year of commercial rollout of the service.