TRAI rolls consultancy paper on SIM deactivation

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rolled out a consultancy paper to seek views of the industry on deactivation of SIMs due to non-usage.

The telecom regulator has fixed 21 December as the last date for receiving comments from telcos and the public and 28 December as the last date for counter comments for this consultancy paper.

''It has been observed that a significant number of wireless connections are not used for long periods of time. These results in avoidable blocking of scarce numbering resources,'' TRAI said in the paper.

''Mobile number series allocated to the operators for provisioning of mobile numbers are becoming increasingly scarce because of a significant growth in the number of wireless connections coupled with the presence of a large number of competitive wireless access service providers,'' TRAI added.

To manage the numbering resources better, the operators have deactivate mobile connections which are not used for a long time.

It is estimated that about 200 million SIMs were inactive for over a certain period of time.

However, while carrying out such deactivations, Trai says customers should be informed transparently and those customers who wish to retain their connections even while not using them should have the option to do so on payment of a connection retention fee.

The consultation process is to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure better utilisation of the scarce numbering resources.