Fixed Mobile Convergence

Vodafone (News - Alert) India users who aren’t using their cellphones better start to or they will be disconnected from the mobile service.

If phones are not used at least every 60 days by subscribers who prepay for their service, they will be disconnected by Vodafone India. The users can either make voice calls or send text messages.

“The decision stems from the sheer paucity of phone numbers after the telecoms department tightened the number allocation criteria,” reports The Economic Times of India.

As many as 10 million subscribers could be impacted by the new regulation, The Economic Times adds.

"These would typically be people with dual SIMs trying to avoid roaming charges, people on lifetime plans and those hunting for the best talktime deals and using connections on a `use and throw' basis. We have no choice but to weed out such irregular users since the telecom department's number management plan has become a lot tighter," an unnamed company official said in a statement to The Economic Times.

The new standard will not affect regular users of the service, just the prepaid subscribers, The Economic Times adds. Many of Vodafone's prepaid subscribers purchased prepaid cards that are valid for a lifetime, and under the old regulations they only had to “recharge” “once in six months,” The Economic Times explains.

Similarly, Bharti Airtel (News - Alert) plans to disconnect subscribers who do not use their cellphones for a period of 60 days, according to news reports.

In other recent news about Vodafone India, the company may prepare for an IPO, even though the offering will not take place soon, according to a report from The Business Standard.

And in another topic about the company, TMCnet reported that government investigators in India have searched Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India offices in connection with the allocation of spectrum in 2001 and 2002. The offices are located in Mumbai, New Delhi and Gurgaon, near New Delhi, TMCnet adds.