As a follow- up to the Prime Minister's visit to J&K and the North East the Department of Telecom has with effect from 1st Dec 2004 made mobile services fully operational in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam and North East States. With this, the mobile telephone service providers of these states can now offer pre-paid mobile services.

The guidelines for the pre-paid mobile services in these states says that wherein the SIM cards of pre-paid mobile service would be sent to the customers by post/courier and the service to the number could be activated only after receipt of acknowledgement slip form the customers and after due verification. However roaming facility to the pre-paid subscriber in these states is not permitted.

The Central Government ban on pre-paid mobile services in Assam and North East States was effective from 1/2/2004 and pre-paid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir was not permitted from the date of start of mobile services in the state. The Department of Telecom decision to begin/ restart pre-paid mobile services in these states was taken after considering the inputs following the PM's visit to these states in November.