Northeastern states: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued an order to re-verify the SIM of subscribers holding more than nine (9) connections across India, and six (6) connections in places such as Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and other Northeastern states, and disconnect in the case of non-verification.
What does the notification say?
According to the notification, these subscribers will be able to choose the connection they want to retain and deactivate the rest of the connections.
As per the order laid by DoT, “If during the data analytics carried out by DoT, it is found that an individual subscriber is having more than nine mobile connections (six in the case of J&K, NE and Assam LSAs) across all the TSPs (telecom service providers), all the mobile connections will be flagged for re-verification.”
To ensure fewer fraud calls, financial crimes: DoT
Reportedly, this order has come in to check the incidence of various crimes faced by Indians be it fraud calls, pesky calls, financial crimes, automated calls and other fraudulent activities.
Additionally, as reported by Business Today, “The DoT has asked telecom operators to remove all the flagged mobile connections from the database that are not in use as per the rule.”
Hence, In case of no subscriber turns up for re-verification, the flagged number will be deactivated within 60 days to be counted from December 7, the order said.
Adding to the order it stated, “In case of a subscriber who is on international roaming or with physical disability or hospitalisation, additional 30 days will be provided…the said timelines shall be regularly intimated by the TSPs to the subscribers of flagged mobile connections via SMSs/IVRS/e-mail/app or any other available methods. The subscribers shall also be regularly intimated about the reason for barring of services.”
