Question : VERIFICATION OF SUBSCRIBERS

(a) whether the Government proposes to issue new guidelines/instructions to the private telecom operators to follow strict compliance with regard to the identification of subscribers;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) the number of private telecom companies found violating such Government instructions, during the current year;

(d) the action taken/being taken by the Government against such companies;

(e) whether the Government has any mechanism to check that the service providers are strictly following the instructions; and

(f) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI GURUDAS KAMAT)

(a) & (b) The Government has made a provision in the License issued to the Service Providers which inter-alia states that “The Licensee shall ensure adequate verification of each and every customer before enrolling him as subscriber; instructions issued by the licensor in this regard from time to time shall be scrupulously followed”. The Government has issued instructions from time to time regarding subscribers’ verification including the provision that after 31st March 2007 if any number is found working without proper verification, a minimum penalty of Rs. 1000/- per violation of subscriber number verification shall be levied on the Licensee. A graded penalty upto Rs. 50,000/- per unverified subscriber is prescribed from 1.04.2009.

(c) & (d) Group of private telecom companies of Reliance, Vodafone, Tata, Idea, Airtel, Aircel, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd., HFCL, Spice and BPL apaprt from BSNL and MTNL have been found violating the Government instructions of Subscribers Verification. The prescribed penalty for each unverified detected subscriber has been imposed against such companies. A penalty of Rs. 4276.79 lakhs was levied so far for 427679 such cases for period upto March 2009.

(e) & (f) The Government has established Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cells in the field units of Department of Telecommunications. TERM Cell does monthly auditing of Customers Acquisition Forms of the subscribers enrolled by Service Providers on sample basis to ensure strict compliance of instructions issued by Government time to time on the verification of subscribers.