Minister for Communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran has emphasised that the government will not extend the March 31, 2007 deadline for telecom companies to verify all their subscribers. Consequently, it has been estimated that about 78 million mobile phone connections may be deactivated shortly.

The mobile industry is yet to verify 10 per cent of its subscriber base. Cellular operators may be fined up to a total of Rs 15 billion, with BSNL and MTNL likely to be affected the most as the bulk of unauthenticated customers subscribe to their services. Smaller companies such as Spice Telecom, BPL Mobile and Aircel have been forced to deactivate 58 per cent, 45.5 per cent and 11.7 per cent of their prepaid subscriber base respectively due to incomplete subscriber verification.