Govt extends pre-paid mobile service to J&K by one year

JAMMU: The Union government has given a directive granting extension of one year for operation of the pre-paid mobile phone services in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior Telecom official said today.

"Permission for the pre-paid mobile service in Jammu and Kashmir has been extended by the central government for one year from February 23, 2010 to 22 February 2011", Deputy Director General (DDG), Telecom Enforcement Resources and Monitoring (TERM) Cell, Department of Telecommunications, J&K, D R Paul told PTI today.

The present permission expired today, he said adding the permission of pre-paid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir is being extended on yearly basis after review of the performance of service providers in respect of proper verification of subscribers and proper security safeguards.

The permission has been granted on certain conditions, Paul said adding these included validity of connection/SIM will not be beyond 22 February 2011, recharge of SIM cannot be done for more than three months at a time, recharge of SIM within last three months of expiry of permission will not have validity beyond 22nd February, 2011.

Other conditions include no connection/SIM will have life time validity, preactivated SIM cannot be sold, connection/SIM wil not have roaming facility outside J&K, service providers can appoint franchises only after seeking clearance from the office of TERM Cell of DOT and connection/SIm is non transferable, he said.

As many as 1.5 lakh pre-paid mobile subscribers were verified with nothing adverse being found.

The Centre had lifted ban on pre-paid mobile phones on January 22 and asked telecom operators and security agencies to re-verify all the customers before starting the services on SIM cards.