It's time for mobile phone users to stand up and be counted. Starting next month, telecom service providers will team up for a thorough headcount and background verification of their subscribers all over the country.

The move follows allegations that mobile phone firms are ‘‘gold-plating’’ enrollment figures to claim a larger market share—and possibly more spectrum in future—on the back of higher subscriptions.

Government has been pushing all operators to verify their pre-paid connection holders’ names and addresses more thoroughly. Fears are, terrorists may find the current process of getting a pre-paid mobile connection far too easy.

To quell doubts, the rival GSM and CDMA camps have set aside differences and shaped up an Apex Advisory Council for Telecom in India (AACTI). The only activity of this council will be to organise a uniform procedure to count mobile phone subscriptions. It will also survey addresses given by subscribers to telecom firms’ dealers while buying new connections.

Even public sector telecom service firms BSNL and MTNL are part of the effort, making the verification exercise mandatory and country-wide. The private sector, represented by GSM industry association COAI and CDMA industry association AUSPI, is getting the Department of Posts (DoP) to conduct background checks on all subscribers. Financial terms are curently being discussed with the DoP, which has been negotiating terms with operators for the last two-three months.

Under the plan, AACTI will hand over subscriber’s names and addresses to postmen, who will verify the information for correctness, while they go from door to door on their usual rounds.

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