BSNL users risk getting deactivated unless they do this

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) announced on Friday that it will strictly follow Supreme Court's order to link all postpaid and prepaid numbers to Aadhaar through e-KYC. The telco has urged customers to link their valid Aadhaar to respective mobile numbers before February 2018 or risk getting their numbers deactivated.

According to BSNL, three percent out of its 56 lakh customers have linked Aadhaar to their phone numbers, which is alarming. But there's still time to go ahead and follow TRAI guidelines to avoid termination.

It is now mandatory for all telecom operators to verify their existing customers by linking the mobile numbers to Aadhaar using e-KYC process. The Department of Telecommunications also sent a notice to all the telcos in India in March, following Supreme Court's order to complete the re-verification process within a year.

While BSNL has started to send out notices to users, it remains unknown whether other telcos Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Aircel have initiated the process. Reliance Jio connections are 100 percent Aadhaar compliant as Jio SIM cards were issued only after completing e-KYC verification. Although Airtel started the e-KYC process for new customers, existing users haven't been verified through e-KYC.

The Centre's order comes at a cost for the incumbents, which would total up to Rs 1,000 crore in total. This is an alarming figure at a stage when the profits earned by the telecom operators have taken a steep plunge in recent quarters.

There's no room for objection on this front as the government is firm on its decision. With this step, the Centre hopes to bring order in the telecom industry by keeping a track of people when they change carriers or numbers so that any unpaid dues can be carried forward.

By linking Aadhaar to mobile numbers, there will be better security verification in place as it involves people's biometrics to be recorded. This will also help the government to know how many numbers belong to a single person.

Have you linked your Aadhaar to your mobile number? Let us know what you think of this move in the comments below.