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| Cellshock: Prepaid era ends tomorrow but no abrupt switching off | | Over 30 lakh subscribers will have to change SIMs in J&K | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Oct 30: From November 1, the pre-paid cell phones will become a thing of past in Jammu and Kashmir. This news certainly is a cause of panic for over 30 lakh subscribers but operators say that there is nothing much to worry about.
In a population of little over ten millions, there are around four million cell-phone subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir –one of the highest and fastest growing tele-densities in India. What panics the cell-phone network in Jammu and Kashmir is the fact that over 80 per cent of the users have pre-paid connections. Students, middle and lower rung executives, and the rural Jammu and Kashmir constitute the majority of pre-paid cellphone subscribers who will have to switch over to the post-paid mode.
According to the Home Ministry order, there will be no issuance of new pre-paid cell-phone connection from November 1. However, that does not mean that pre-paid cells are being switched off abruptly. The validities of the existing number will continue till January 28, 2010 and in between there will be no renewals.
When contacted, BSNL’s General Manager (Mobiles) told Early Times that subscribers can have the top ups to enjoy talktime as long as they have validity subject to upper deadline of January 28, 2010. “Beyond that no pre-paid connection will work”, he said.
No new prepaid mobile connections would be issued nor would existing ones be renewed from Nov 1 in Jammu and Kashmir following reports that militant groups were getting SIM cards on fake identities, the union home ministry said Friday.
“The ministry of home affairs has decided that no prepaid mobile connections would be issued and existing prepaid SIM cards would not be renewed in Jammu and Kashmir after Nov 1, 2009,” an official said.
The ministry has asked the Department of Telecommunications to take appropriate action to implement the decision.
The move comes after reports that militants were getting mobile SIM cards on fake documents, setting off alarm bells in the security and intelligence establishments of the insurgency-hit state.
“The step comes in the wake of the reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such prepaid mobile connections by the service providers and vendors. In some cases, a single person had been issued with multiple number of connections,” the home ministry said.
"The fake documents and identity cards are also being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of prepaid connections. This situation has given rise to serious security concerns. Hence, the decision," the ministry said.
Intelligence agencies have been maintaining that private service providers were "overlooking security parameters to push their sales".
Police have arrested several people in many parts of the state including Doda, Kupwara and Srinagar after it was discovered that pre-paid connections were being used by militants. cell phones, police said, were also used to trigger off blasts.
Earlier, Home Minister Chidambaram had, during a visit to the state, hinted that the government is mulling such a move as all efforts to persuade people to switch over to postpaid connections were not succeeding.
Airtel has nearly 19 lakh subscribers followed by BSNL having 12 lakh and Aircel having seven lakh.
Currently, Indian citizens of other states who have a prepaid connection are also not allowed roaming facilities while visiting J&K and the seven North Eastern states.
The mobile subscribers were largely unhappy over the fact that the centre government did not gave them enough time to smoothly switch over to the post paid services.
"We were given only one days time to take a call, Shivangi Gupta, a pre paid mobile user said responding to the decision to ban the pre paid services.
Majority of service providers also shared their view point while reacting to the decision of the union government.We have to abide by the decision of the union home ministry as we have no other option, a senior executive of the private mobile service provider said requesting anoymity.
Majority of students and middle class households who rely on regular use of the pre -paid services said we use pre paid services because they are economical. we have submitted all our papers and proper verification was done then why ban our services. If the government is seriously trying to prevent misuse of pre paid SIM cards it should either deactivate all the connections or order reverification, Purshottam Lal, a vendor who sells SIM cards said.
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