Over 60 lakh Vodafone customers in the Kolkata and Bengal circles have linked their SIM to their Aadhaar numbers. The company said that customers can walk into any Vodafone stores and about 50,000 multi-brand outlets across Kolkata and other parts of Bengal to complete the e-KYC activation, in case of new customers, and re-verification, for existing customers. Customer’s Aadhaar and fingerprints will be required for both validating and activating prepaid and postpaid connections.
While, customers can easily locate a Vodafone stores and Mini stores near them using the ‘Store Locator‘ feature on the Vodafone India site, it’s not sure how Vodafone plans to inform them about the multi-brand outlets.
In January this year, TRAI recommended DoT to implement Aadhaar-based verification for SIM cards. Following these recommendations, DoT made it mandatory for all telecom operators to ensure that their subscribers link mobile numbers to Aadhaar number within a year.
Earlier this month, in a new directive to all telecom companies, DoT said that Aadhaar card holders will have to provide a ‘local reference’ address, name, and contact number in case they’re purchasing a SIM card outside their home circle. This ‘local reference’ is required only for issuance of new SIM cards to outstation customers – customers who have an Aadhaar card issued in a Licensed Service Area (LSA) other than the one where they have applied for a SIM.
Vodafone subscriber base
Vodafone India’s 3G/4G subscriber base increased to 37.7 million connections for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 (Q4 FY17), up from 35 million connections in the previous quarter. Note that post the launch of Jio and due to competitive pressure in the industry, the telco had lost 4.6 million data connections in the previous quarter, of which 3G/4G connections accounted for 1 million connections. Overall the company reported 209 million customers, up from 205 million in the previous quarter. Also, the company added 1.9 million data connections during the quarter, taking the total to 66.9 million connections, up from 65 million data connections in the previous quarter.
