With the central government breathing down the necks of telecom operators to link all connections with Aadhaar numbers, Vodafone has launched Aadhaar verification vans in Rajasthan to ease the process.
The vans were initially launched with the purpose of easing the 4G SIM upgrade process. Over the past 10 months, mobile vans have helped thousands of customers with 4G SIM upgrades, the company said. Aadhaar verification services are also now being offered on the vans.
The vans were launched as the company has been expanding its 4G network across the country at a brisk pace, but customers need to use new SIM cards to avail these services.
The vans have already covered over 450+ villages like Jhunjhunu, Mahapura, Hingoniya, Bhadra, Fatehpur, Bandikui, Makrana, Panchpadra, Phalodi etc, the operator said.
They will now move on to traverse the deeper precincts of villages like Nechwa, Kasli, Dhod, Hindaun, Manoharpur, Kirdhauli, Singrawat, Kurli, Pulasar and Mangloona, it said.
“Over the past years, Vodafone has added additional 4G sites to strengthen Vodafone SuperNetTM 4G and extended Vodafone’s best network to more and more towns and villages in Rajasthan,” said Amit Bedi, Business Head- Rajasthan, Vodafone India.
India has around 1.05 bln mobile phone connections, many of which are inactive or rarely used.
It is believed that the Aadhaar drive will reduce the total number of mobile connections in the country by 100-200 mln.
Mobile numbers are being linked with Aadhaar to help security agencies track the movement of the citizens to prevent crime.
Once the linking is over, it will be possible for the central government to know exactly where a person is at any time thanks to the Aadhaar-linked mobile phone. It will also be possible to know all the purchases and financial transactions done by the person in which the phone number or his Aadhaar number has been mentioned.