Verifying mobile phone subscribers: a whitewash?
Couple of weeks ago I got a call from IDEA Cellular with regards to verifying my pre paid IDEA mobile phone connection, no problem I thought since I had submitted all the necessary documents and filled up the form properly when I bought this connection roughly three years back.
But it wasn’t to be, I was shocked when I heard that my connection was in the name of some Mr. Singh!!! When I questioned the caller that how could that be since I had submitted all the documents at the time of purchase, but he wasn’t interested in answering my queries and wanted to know if I would be filing the required documents or not, not wanting to loose this number I said yes.
As soon as I hanged up I called up IDEA customer care to ensure it wasn’t some one fooling around but the reply from the customer care was negative and they confirmed that they were calling their customers to verify their details. Once again I got no answer or explanations from them on why my connection was in the name of some one else when I had submitted my documents at the time of purchase and only after that the connection was activated which ruled out any chance that shopkeeper had given me an old SIM.
After that day I forgot all about it and chose to ignore it till the last moment and yesterday I got an SMS from IDEA with the following contents:
“Dear Subscriber, we have not received your ID proof and IDEA Prepaid form. Please submit the same within 24 hours, to avoid restriction of service under Government directives.â€
This SMS was enough to wake me up and I finally went to IDEA showroom at Jail Road, when I reached that place I saw dozens of subscribers like me were there trying to prove that the connection they had for years were actually theirs. After waiting a while for the forms to arrive I was finally given a copy of the form that I had filled up three years back and after that I attached the copy of my driving license along with the form and attached my passport sized photo as well. Then I went to counter number three to submit the form where the lady at the counter was arguing with another lady who had come there to submit her form. Conversation was something like this:
Counter Lady: this will not work!
Customer Lady: what do you mean?
Counter Lady: you have to attach your resident proof
Customer Lady: I have, see that electricity bill?
Counter Lady: but this is in some one elses name!
Customer Lady: yes it is in my landlord’s name
Counter Lady: but this can’t be accepted as a proof of residence since it does not proves that you live there
Customer Lady: you see the copy of my college ID card that states I live at that house and the electricity bill in the name of my landlord proves that fact!
Me: ???
Counter Lady: this can not be accepted as proof of residence, don’t you have any thing else? It doesn’t even have to be residence proof of Delhi!
Customer Lady: residence proof of any state will work?
Counter Lady: yes
Customer Lady: but then I would have to get that proof from my home!
Me: hehehe
Counter Lady: then attach the residence proof of your friend
Me: what the fuck!!!
Customer Lady: cant this electricity bill work?
Counter Lady (now getting pissed): NO!!!
Customer Lady: so I can attach my friends proof?
Counter Lady: yes
Customer Lady: so my connection will work in my friend’s name?
Counter Lady: yup
Customer Lady walks off thinking which of her friends will let her use his/her id.
I submitted my form and walk out as well, but one thing that I wonder is how effective is this verification going to be when people who are suppose to be verifying connections are the ones suggesting the way out for people and suggesting things which are completely illegal. When government came out with this rule and started enforcing it strictly was to ensure that cellular firms kept record of their subscriber which would help law enforcement agencies track law breakers.
However if this is the way verification is going to be done then I am afraid that it is nothing but a whitewash over the reluctance of cellular phone service providers who are only interested in making profit and give two hoots about government regulations. This ongoing drive will achieve nothing other then troubling genuine subscribers like me. Â Â
Man Yogesh,
Me from Hyderabad, AP. Same problem as yours. But fortunately not as bad as yours. Just the verification drama here too.
I thought you would be the best person to answer my query …. yeah better then the Idea Support Guys. Coz they are downright aggresive and each fellow has a different opinion.
Just one small detail, was Driving Licence + passport photos enough ? Did they ask for any more “proofs” ?
Thanks in advance mate,
Samuel Theophilus.
Hi Samuel, sorry to hear that you are also facing problems with them. Well in my case driving license and a passport sized photo was good enough for them and till now I havent heard any thing from them so I guess it should work.
[...] shock in store for me, it turns out, that submitting documents in 2007 really was a hogwash (Verifying mobile phone subscribers: a whitewash?) and my mobile phone connection was still in name of some one [...]