13516 - SIM cards without Aadhaar still not a seamless process

SIM cards without Aadhaar still not a seamless process

Nisha Nambiar | TNN | Updated: May 11, 2018, 09:08 IST

Cellphone operators continue to demand Aadhaar cards from customers to issue new SIM cards despite the governm... Read More

PUNE: Retail outlets of cellphone operators continue to demand Aadhaar cards from customers to issue new SIM cards despite the government’s instructions to accept documents such as driving licence, passport and voter ID card for identification. 

“An operator denied me a new SIM card even as I was ready to furnish identification documents such as electoral card, passport and bank statement. After I told him about the top court’s observation, the retailer said he would get back to me. But he never did,” said Mugdha Godbole, who is yet to get an additional new SIM. 

Mohan Saxena said he needed a new SIM for his son, but a mobile store refused him in the absence of Aadhaar. “I will collect copies about the rules and approach them again,” said the retired government employee. 

“I shifted from the US and was trying my son’s admission to school. I am yet to get the Aadhaar and the mobile retail stores are not issuing me a SIM card,” said Anandita Bagchi.

Earlier this month, the government issued instructions to operators to accept alternative identification documents such as driving licence, passport and voter ID card. The mobile companies have been asked to follow the instructions so that consumers are not inconvenienced. The Supreme Court has clarified that Aadhaar is not a must for getting SIM cards until it takes a final view.

Representatives of the outlets said they did not want to take a chance while issuing the SIM cards. “We prefer Aadhaar card as a verification proof,” said a sales attendant at a store on JM Road. “We also prefer to issue SIM cards against Aadhaar cards because that will be eventually the verification process,” said an operator from the Camp area. 

LATEST COMMENT

What a balant contempt of court and people have no readdressal mechanism. And Jio retailers and stores clearly say thaat SC decision is not applicable to them.

Rahul JFL

Cellular Operators Association of India director-general Rajan Mathews said the points-of-sale of member operators have been informed about the requirements and that both Aadhaar and other specified documents were acceptable for activating new SIM cards.

“Any deviation from these instructions should be brought to the attention of the operators concerned for resolution,” he said.

13455 - Centre defends in SC its decision on Aadhaar linking with mobiles - Times of India

Centre defends in SC its decision on Aadhaar linking with mobiles

PTI | May 3, 2018, 23:23 IST

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday strongly defended its decision to seed Aadhaar numbers with mobile phones, telling the Supreme Court that it could have been hauled up for contempt if the verification of mobile users was not undertaken by it. 

However, the top court said the government had misinterpreted its order and used it as a "tool" to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users. 

A five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law, was told by Attorney General KK Venugopal that it was the specific direction of the apex court to the Centre to verify all SIM cards users within a year. 

"The (February 6, 2017) order of the Supreme Court was the positive direction to verify the SIM cards," Venugopal said, adding that the failure on part of the government could have made it liable to be hauled up for the contempt. 

The top law officer was responding to the apex court's earlier observation that it had not ordered mandatory linkage of Aadhaar and the government misinterpreted its order on a PIL filed by 'Lokniti Foundation'. 

"In fact there was no such direction from the Supreme Court, but you took it and used it as a tool to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users," the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, had said. 

Venugopal then referred to the recent order of the court that had put on hold the mandatory linking of Aadhaar till a decision on the PILs and said that currently, the unique identity was not mandatory to obtain a new connection. 

"We are waiting for the decision of the court. If the court allows it, there there will be no chance of forgery and fraud if Aadhaar is linked to SIM card," he said, adding that it will remain optional till the final disposal of the matters. 

Later in the day, senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for former High Court judge Justice (Retd) KS Puttaswamy, referred to the technical experts' views on the technical aspect of the Aadhaar architectures and said that a real time surveillance of citizens was possible. 

For the first time in a democracy, something like CIDR has been implemented and the apex court has to balance the human rights and new technologies that is capable of being misused, he said. Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) is a government agency that stores and manages data for the country's Aadhaar project. 

"You cannot have a surveillance state in a democracy. Identity of the person, date and time, and location are the three elements of surveillance," he said, adding that all the three can be known by using the Aadhaar technologies. 

He then referred to the affidavit of the Centre filed on March 9 and said an expert report by Manindra Agarwal of IIT Kanpur has categorically said that breach of verification lock can lead to leakage of information about the location of transactions undertaken by a citizen during last five years. 

"Experts on both sides now agree that surveillance is possible. It is not just a privacy issue. It is a limited government issue. How far does the coercive power of the state extend? It cannot extend to creating an infrastructure that is capable of tracking people ... This is the real time surveillance," he said. 

"UIDAI's presentation report says that biometrics database is accessible by third party vendors like Morpho, Accenture, identity solutions and one more. Breach of verification log leaks location of places where an individual did authentication," he said. 

Can we have a law or system that sets up an authority that does not comply with the democratic norms, he asked, adding, "I am speaking about a rudimentary level of surveillance. I am not even talking about commercial surveillance." 

"There is an inexorable march of technology. What are the kind of safeguards that we should take while balancing these rights is something we have to consider," the bench asked. 

It was not that there was quantitative lack of food in our country and the problem was that people cannot access that food and it is the duty of the State to look into this aspect also, the bench said.

Divan then referred to the answers given to the queries by UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey and said Aadhaar was a "self certification or declaration system", because no government authority checks the identity records of the persons at the time of enrolment.

"UIDAI takes no responsibility for correct name, address, date of birth. Please consider, if this meets minimum standard of rationality," Divan said, adding "even an illegal immigrant can get Aadhaar as there is nobody from the government to check the authenticity of the documents submitted at the time of enrolment."

TOP COMMENT

This article clearly shows the extent to which the govt is fooling the citizens of India. We need to boot these liars out in 2019.

wholetthedawgsout

Divan would resume advancing rejoinder arguments on May 8.

Earlier, the court did not seem to agree with the government's contention that the Aadhaar law was correctly termed as a Money Bill by the Lok Sabha Speaker as it dealt with "targeted delivery of subsidies" for which funds come from the Consolidated Fund of India. 

13422 - Aadhaar is not mandatory for mobile SIM verification, other identification methods allowed too says DoT - First Post

Aadhaar is not mandatory for mobile SIM verification, other identification methods allowed too says DoT

News-Analysis tech2 News Staff May 02, 2018 09:32 AM IST

Telecom subscribers will finally get some relief from the nagging of telcos to link Aadhaar number with their SIM card as the government has issued instructions for all the telecom operators to accept alternative methods of identification such as driving license, passport, voter ID card, among others.

According to a Times of India report, telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that telecom operators have been asked to follow the instruction with immediate effect.

According to a report, telcos had been sending SMS/emails to their subscribers to link their Aadhaar number with their SIM cards, either while issuing a new SIM or for reverification purposes. Additionally, customers who wanted to port their numbers were also denied services on not producing an Aadhaar number.

This comes after the Supreme Court had recently clarified its stand regarding the matter when senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi on Day 33 of Aadhaar hearings said that SC in the Lokniti Foundation case on 6 February 2017 had made it compulsory to link Aadhaar number with SIM cards. To this, the Bench replied that it did not mandate re-verification or linking of the Aadhaar card. It had asked for verification to conducted within a year, with Aadhaar number as just one of the means of authentication. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) misinterpreted this order. It interpreted the verification to be through Aadhaar card only.

Following SC’s clarification, the telcos in their defence said that they were merely following the telecom commission’s guidelines which had made the linking mandatory. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Director General Rajan S Mathews, in defence of telcos had said that that the SC had extended the deadline indefinitely and not revoked the order. Therefore, the telcos would continue to urge subscribers to link the Aadhaar card with the mobile numbers. He had also said that the telcos were merely following the telecom commission's guidelines.

Since the telecom commission has revoked its previous instructions of Aadhaar-SIM linking, subscribers can now breathe a sigh of relief.

Updated Date: May 02, 2018 09:32 AM

13421 - Aadhaar not must for mobile SIM, says govt - TNN

Aadhaar not must for mobile SIM, says govt

Pankaj Doval | TNN | Updated: May 2, 2018, 13:17 IST

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mobile companies have been asked to follow the instructions “immediately” so that consumers are not inconvenienced
• Mobile companies had been insisting on verification through Aadhaar, based on earlier instructions given by the telecom department
• The Aadhaar issue had not only impacted local residents, but even NRIs and foreigners visiting the country

NEW DELHI: Here’s some good news for consumers struggling to get a mobile phone SIM without an Aadhaar card. The government has issued instructions to operators to accept alternative identification documents such as driving licence, passport and voter ID card. Mobile companies have been asked to follow the instructions “immediately” so that consumers are not inconvenienced, said telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan. 

The move follows a TOI report + on April 27, which highlighted instances of people being denied a SIM card if they did not have Aadhaar. The Supreme Court has already clarified that Aadhaar is not mandatory for getting SIM cards until it takes a final view. “The ministry has issued instructions to all telecom companies, asking them not to deny a SIM card to any individual who does not have an Aadhaar number. We have asked them to accept other forms of KYC (know your customer) documents, and continue to issue SIM cards,” Sundararajan told TOI. 

Mobile companies had been insisting on verification through Aadhaar, based on earlier instructions given by the telecom department. While the telecom ministry insisted that it had given such instructions only after observations of the SC in the Lokniti Foundation case, the top court recently clarified that it had not given any such orders. 

The Aadhaar issue had not only impacted local residents, but even NRIs and foreigners visiting the country. Since the majority of such individuals did not have an Aadhaar card, retailers of mobile companies had started denying them SIM cards. Mobile operators have so far refused to comment on the matter. However, official sources said the government has taken it very seriously.

“This kind of a denial by retailers is completely uncalled for when there is no legal basis to enforce it. Such practices will not be tolerated,” a senior official said. It is also understood that the government has asked mobile companies to “take it easy” on the issue of reverification of mobile numbers with Aadhaar. With the Supreme Court extending the deadline for this indefinitely (until its final decision), the government feels that there is no merit for mobile operators to “unnecessarily push” their subscribers on the matter.

Until last week, mobile companies had been bombarding customers with calls, messages and other such unsolicited communication, asking them to link their phone number with Aadhaar. They had said that they were “simply complying” with the government’s previous directive on the matter.

TOP COMMENT

Standard operating procedure of this chai pakoda balatkari party...first implement in a hurry and then retreat when facing backlash for illogical policy decisions...

Jan Nat

“The communication is still being sent to cellphone users to encourage them to re-verify their mobile connections. However, no last date for completion of this exercise is to be mentioned in such communication… All the telecom companies are adhering to telecom ministry guidelines. Hence, they continue to send communication to subscribers to re-verify their mobile connections without mentioning any last date,” Rajan Mathews, director-general of industry body COAI, had said.

Read this story in Bengali 

In Video: Aadhaar not must for mobile SIM, govt tells telecom operators

13408 - Govt hides DoT order that made Aadhaar-mobile phone linking mandatory for Indians - India Today

Govt hides DoT order that made Aadhaar-mobile phone linking mandatory for Indians

India Today Tech
New Delhi
April 30, 2018

Follow @IndiaTodayTech 

Do you remember the Department of Telecom (DoT) order in 2017 that made it mandatory for Indians to link Aadhaar number with SIM cards? The order is no longer available on the DoT website. In that order, the government had said that the Aadhaar-mobile number linking was mandatory because the Supreme Court said so. But a few days ago a lawyer representing TRAI had virtual agreed in front of a Supreme Court bench that the government misled people by saying that it was the top court that ordered the Aadhaar-mobile phone linking.

Currently if you try to access that DoT order, you will get an error saying that the "requested URL was rejected." It is not clear if this is a glitch or if it is a fallout of the government admission in the Supreme Court. The same URL, rather surprisingly, is accessible if you use a VPN server, so it seems that the DoT order is still online but Indians have been barred from accessing it. The DoT order was available at this link.

If it is a bug, it would be hopefully fixed soon. If it is an attempt by government to remove the order from the DoT website, chances are that the whole document will be soon taken offline. The order was issued on March 23, 2017.

Earlier, the Supreme Court that is hearing the constitutional challenge to Aadhaar had noted that it never specifically ordered linking of SIM cards with Aadhaar number. "In the Lokniti Foundation case, the SC has not directed linking of SIM with UID. But the Union government's circular says so. There was no direction by the court..." Justice D Y Chandrachud had said last week during the hearing, according to a report in Times of India.

To this senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing UIDAI, agreed. This was an admission that the government virtually lied in a bid to foist Aadhaar on people of India. "There was no such direction from the Supreme Court, but you took it and used it as tool to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users," the Supreme Court bench told the UIDAI advocate, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

13360 - Never directed Aadhaar-mobile number linkage, says Supreme Court - TNN

Never directed Aadhaar-mobile number linkage, says Supreme Court

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN | Updated: Apr 26, 2018, 05:09 IST

HIGHLIGHTS

• The apex court on Wednesday clarified that it had not ordered mandatory linkage of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar
• The CJI-led bench pointed out that the February 6, 2017, order merely recorded then Attorney General’s submission on Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: The mad rush to link mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar supposedly to comply with a directive of the Supreme Court was uncalled for. The apex court on Wednesday clarified that it had not ordered mandatory linkage, and said the government misinterpreted its February 6, 2017, observation and insisted on doing it. 

“In the Lokniti Foundation case, the SC has not directed linking of SIM with UID. But the Union government’s circular says so. There was no direction by the court...” Justice D Y Chandrachud said during the hearing before a bench that included Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan. 

The CJI-led bench pointed out that the February 6, 2017, order merely recorded then Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s submission that Aadhaar was one of the documents used for verification of subscriber identity. 

Significantly, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who appeared for UIDAI, agreed with the bench and said the government appeared to have taken the SC’s observations for verification of mobile phone subscribers seriously. 

Drawing Dwivedi’s attention to the February 6 order, the bench said the court merely recorded the AG’s submission that “an effective programme for the same would be devised at the earliest and the process of identity verification will be completed within one year”. 

The bench set the record straight when Dwivedi argued that one-time seeding of mobile number with Aadhaar was not a big ask and would not lead to intrusion into citizens’ privacy as no call records were maintained through Aadhaar.

UIDAI’s insistence that the Supreme Court had mandated that all mobile connections be linked with Aadhaar had led to a scramble of sorts, with mobile service providers, nudged by the government, inundating subscribers with dire messages on the need to abide by the alleged order.

TOP COMMENT

linking Aadhar to mobile numbers will stop blackmails, threat calls and ransom calls by 99%.... it should be definitely implemented...

Romanov Avtachika

The SC on March 13 had indefinitely extended the deadline for linkage of Aadhaar with mobile numbers and bank accounts of individuals and asked the government to wait till the constitution bench decided the validity of Aadhaar to take further steps in this regard.

The Centre had in the interim agreed to extend the deadline for bank account linkage with Aadhaar till March 31. 

13210 - Linking Aadhaar with all mobile numbers a problem, SC tells govt- Live Mint

Linking Aadhaar with all mobile numbers a problem, SC tells govt

Aadhaar will not prevent an individual from operating layers of commercial transactions and it won’t prevent bank frauds either, says Supreme Court justice D.Y. Chandrachud

Last Published: Thu, Apr 05 2018. 11 36 PM IST

Priyanka Mittal

Curbing terrorism, money laundering, black money and delivery of subsidies and benefits had been listed by the centre as “legitimate state interests” in rolling out the Aadhaar scheme. Photo: HT

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Thursday rapped the centre, saying its proposal to link Aadhaar with the mobile phone numbers of all Indians was “a problem.”

“Do terrorists apply for SIM cards? It’s a problem that you are asking the entire population to link their mobile phones with Aadhaar,” justice D.Y. Chandrachud remarked.

The question came up when attorney general K.K. Venugopal submitted that biometrics were a safe and accurate technology that could prevent money laundering, bank frauds, income tax evasion and terrorism.

“Aadhaar will not prevent an individual from operating layers of commercial transactions. It won’t prevent bank frauds either. It can only help in providing benefits, subsidies under section 7 of the Aadhaar Act,” said justice Chandrachud.

The Constitution bench also questioned the centre on the “test of proportionality” under the Aadhaar scheme, with Chandrachud observing that “mere legitimate state interest” would not ensure proportionality. “How far can the state cast the net? To extend its scope up to section 7 (benefits, subsidies etc) seems to be understandable,” he added.

In an earlier hearing, the court had asked the Unique Identification Data Authority of India (UIDAI) to explain the scope of its powers and violation of privacy over collection of iris scan, fingerprints, “any other biological attributes” of an individual.

“Tomorrow, UIDAI may even say to give blood samples,” Chandrachud said.

Curbing terrorism, money laundering, black money and delivery of subsidies and benefits had been listed by the centre as “legitimate state interests” in rolling out the Aadhaar scheme.

First Published: Thu, Apr 05 2018. 09 54 PM IST

12585 - Close to 71.24 crore mobile connections linked with Aadhaar: RS Prasad - Indian Express

Close to 71.24 crore mobile connections linked with Aadhaar: RS Prasad

Close to 71.24 crore mobile numbers - both new connections and existing - and 82 crore bank accounts have been linked with 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar, the Rajya Sabha has been informed

By: Tech Desk | Published: December 28, 2017 11:11 am

Close to 71.24 crore mobile numbers – both new connections and existing – and 82 crore bank accounts have been linked with 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar. (Representational Image. Source: Reuters)

Close to 71.24 crore mobile numbers – both new connections and existing – and 82 crore bank accounts have been linked with 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar, the Rajya Sabha has been informed. “Linking of Aadhaar with personal bank accounts is being done based on the amendments that have been effected in the Prevention of Money Laundering Rules 2005. Linking of Aadhaar with mobile number has been effected in pursuance of…Supreme Court order dated February 6, 2017,” Minister for Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad has said.

Prasad further said: “As on December 8, 2017, 71.24 crore mobile numbers (new and re-verified) and 82 crore bank accounts have been linked with Aadhaar.” The Aadhaar based re-verification of existing mobile subscribers is expected to be carried out by telcos by March 31, 2018, Prasad said in the reply dated December 22, 2017.

All mobile phone users have to re-verify their mobile number with the Aadhaar card. The exercise can be completed by going to the store of the concerned telecom operator and completing the e-KYC function. A customer will be required to carry his/her Aadhaar card for the same. Telecom operators are relying on authentication via the fingerprint to confirm the Aadhaar card number.

The other way of linking the mobile number to Aadhaar card for re-verification is via OTP or one time password. The OTP is sent to their mobile number from UIDAI. However, the OTP is only sent to the mobile number registered with Aadhaar at the time of applying for the card. In order to update the mobile number linked with Aadhaar a user will have to go one of the application centres. This process cannot be carried out online. Read more here on how to link mobile number with Aadhaar card.

With PTI inputs

12448 - Political outfits object linking of Aadhaar, mobile numbers - Tribune India

Posted at: Nov 28, 2017, 1:45 AM; last updated: Nov 28, 2017, 1:45 AM (IST)

Political outfits object linking of Aadhaar, mobile numbers

Doraha, November 27

In a joint statement, Pawan Kumar Kaushal of the MCPI (United) and Lakhwinder Singh Bowani of the All India Kisan Federation condemned the Centre government for issuing payment banking licenses to mobile companies in order to access subsidies of the poor people.

“Through another absurd order the government has authorised mobile companies for payment banking, which are opening such accounts without any prior permission, consent and information of the holder of the mobile account number,” they rued.

“The subsidy on domestic gas cylinder and other goods goes to that account of consumer, which is last linked to Aadhaar Card. In such case the last linked account will be the account opened by the mobile company. The subsidy will go to this account opened by a mobile firm. The modus operandi is not known to the consumer eligible for the subsidy,” they added.

“The banking facility is almost available everywhere and the consumer is able to withdraw subsidy easily, but mobile companies don’t even have offices in towns not to speak of villages,” they said.

“The government must withdraw payment banking licences of mobile companies and take action against those firms, which have opened accounts of consumers without their consent,” the leaders demanded. — OC

12236 - Aadhaar mobile linking gives shock to seniors - DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Aadhaar mobile linking gives shock to seniors

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published

Oct 23, 2017, 1:51 am IST

Telecom companies are sending SMSes to subscribers asking them to link the aadhhaar with the mobile number by February 2018.

Hyderabad: The Aadhaar mobile phone linkage deadline is giving anxious moments to senior citizens. 

Mobile companies insist on cross checking of fingerprints with the Aadhaar data to know whether the mobile number is held by the same person. Due to ageing, senior citizens’ fingerprints fail to match. Apparently, complaints of mismatch are on the rise.

Telecom companies are sending SMSes to subscribers asking them to link the aadhhaar with the mobile number by February 2018. They warned of termination of services from March 2018.

Worried senior citizens are running from pillar to post, requesting them to consider other ID proofs for linkage.

Some others fear sharing their biometric data with private companies as there are chances of misuse of the aadhaar data.

They question the rationale behind insisting on fingerprints for the Aadhaar-mobile linkage

“I linked aadhaar with bank account, pan card, LPG connection, etc easily. But linkage with mobile phone has been creating problems. My fingerprints did not match with the aadhaar data,” said Pisati Sriram, a 72-year old retired employee.

P.Vijaya Laxmi, a 70-year old, said, "My biometric details were collected in 2010. Now, they did not match when I applied for the mobile phone linkage. They said my fingerprints got vanished due to ageing.” 

12197 - Government plans to ease Aadhaar-mobile linking - Economic Times

Government plans to ease Aadhaar-mobile linking

BY PANKAJ DOVAL, TNN | UPDATED: OCT 11, 2017, 11.01 AM IST

The proxy authorisation option will see a person nominated by a senior citizen verifying Aadhaar linkage for the mobile user.

NEW DELHI: There is relief on the way for mobile phone users, particularly senior citizens, facing difficulties in complying with the Supreme Court's order linking Aadhaar with mobiles as proxy authorisation may soon be permitted for the purpose. 

The options being considered by the government in consultation with telecom companies include use of online OTP (one time password) for mobile numbers registered with the Unique Identification Authority of India, alternatives such as iris scanning for persons whose fingerprints are indistinct and home visits for senior citizens. 

Sources said the UIDAI is expected to issue directions outlining the options that could be made available to mobile users to comply with the SC ruling so that the process is completed with minimum inconvenience to the public. There has been concern that public annoyance over time consuming procedures was reflecting poorly on the government even though it had not sought Aadhaar linkage to phones. 

The proxy authorisation option will see a person nominated by a senior citizen verifying Aadhaar linkage for the mobile user. As of now, it is not clear whether the facility will be restricted to senior citizens or be available to other mobile users as well. The move should ease problems like long waits at mobile service provider outlets and issues such as non-availability of machines. 

Aadhaar linkage could get even simpler if the mobile number is the same as provi ded to UIDAI at the time of registration. The UIDAI itself is not permitted under law to share details with telecom companies but can do so through an OTP verified process provided by service provider. The option of home visits by telecom companies where biometrics can be confirmed by a small scanner linked to a mobile is also being considered. 

Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan told TOI that the government was mindful of many concerns, and recently held a meeting with mobile operators and UIDAI to sort them out. "We are trying to smoothen things for both -telcos and customers. We are particularly concerned for older customers where biometrics can fail. We are coming out with measures to ease the pain of customers," she said. 

Mobile phone consumers have been receiving urgent and repeated messages from telecom operators to link their SIM cards with Aadhaar, or face disconnection in services.Customers of leading companies such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are having to deal with SMS alerts and even tele-calls to link the numbers with Aadhaar. 

For example, customers are being told by some operators that their numbers will be disconnected in case the verification is "not completed immediately". This is far from the truth as customers have time till around the first week of February next year to complete the process. Then why the threat? A harried customer of Airtel got this message regarding the linkage with Aadhaar, "...To continue services, please contact the service centre." 

"It does not even mention that we have time till February next year. I am already being bombarded by the operator to do it immediately , or face disconnection. Is this fair?" the Delhibased customer said. "Besides, there is major trouble for people living in rural, hilly or smaller towns. Telecom service centres are located at faraway locations and it may not always be feasible for customers to go again and again," said another customer. 

Telecom companies justified the urgency on their part to the "potential rush if everyone comes for verification towards the end of the deadline in February". However, they did not answer questions about customer pain points.