According to a recent notification issued by the DoT to all chief general managers of telecom circles across the country, instructing them to discontinue this service from DoT exchanges to the switches of cellular operators.

Angry customers have already begun hounding cellular operators in various towns and cities. Cellular operators have been flooded with complaints from customers who have stopped receiving the numbers of phones from where they have been receiving calls. Customers are especially upset as cellular companies were charging Rs 99 per month from customers for providing this service. Calcutta was the first to beaffected while the same complaints have begun to pour in from other centres as well. This facility, according to DoT sources, was so far being provided free of cost by the department to cellular companies whereas these companies were in turn charging customers every month for a service which was not originating from their own network.T V Ramachandran, vice president of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) a forum representing cellular operators in the country, said that this would badly affect the services offered by cellular companies. He said that the DoT move was typical of "one step forward and a mile backwards" that the cellular operators had been subjected to by way of arbitrary government policies.

It may be recalled that cellular operators were already in a fix as some customers had dragged them to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) as cellular companies had initially offered these services free of cost and later slapped a monthly fee of Rs 99. Celloperators on the other hand defended themselves stating they were within their rights to charge for services offered by them at anytime regardless of the fact that they were at one time priced lower or offered at promotional rates.