The Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) has released a consultation paper to deal with issues related to deactivation of SIMs due to non-usage the. This has been done to protect the interests of consumers while seeking to ensure better utilization of scarce numbering resources.
 
The regulator has sought views of stakeholders on the issues raised in the consultation paper by December 21.

TRAI said that mobile number series allocated to the wireless access service providers for provisioning of mobile numbers are becoming increasingly scarce because of a significant growth in the number of wireless connections coupled with the presence of a large number of competitive wireless access service providers.
 
“It has been observed that a significant number of wireless connections are not used for long periods of time. This results in avoidable blocking of scarce numbering resources”, it said.
 
With an aim to manage their numbering resources better, the service providers have proposed to follow a procedure for deactivating mobile connections which are not used for a long time. However, while carrying out such deactivations, the customers should be informed transparently and those customers who wish to retain their connections even while not using them should have the option to do so on payment of a connection retention fee.