New Delhi, Aug 23 (NVI): From tomorrow (August 24), telecom operators will start using the photograph of mobile phone subscribers to ascertain how many connections each individual has.
According to an order of the Department of Telecom (DoT), an individual cannot possess more than 9 mobile phone connections, meaning SIM cards, across all operators and all circles in the country.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and the North-East, the limit is 6 mobile phone connections.
If the number of connections possessed by an individual exceeds 9, the “numbers acquired at the later date will be disconnected” first.
Subscribers, who have hit the ceiling on mobile connections in their name, will be prevented from buying any more SIM cards by the telecom operators.
The DoT will put a photo of each subscriber, who has reached the limit, on its Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP)—the system that tracks how many connections a person holds across companies and circles.
Under the circular, “a representative image of the photo of each such subscriber who has already touched the prescribed limit for mobile connections in his name would be made available on DIP” from August 23.
Operators have been told to “download all such images on daily basis so that such subscribers could be prevented from crossing the prescribed limit”.
When someone who has reached the cap tries for a fresh connection, the operator must tell him “that he already has maximum number of mobile connections permitted to an individual and accordingly, a new mobile connection cannot be provided to him”.
In the first phase, the check may run a day after enrolment, in a catch-up mode.
Companies have to build it into the sign-up process and run it in real time by 30 November.
Till then, the circular says, “any mobile connection activated beyond the prescribed limit for a day shall be immediately suspended till resolution of the issue”.
The report listed other telecom-side steps around it.
They include keeping point-of-sale and SIM supply-chain data on the DIP traceable for investigators, SIM-binding by messaging apps so that access is tied to the SIM in the device, finishing all subscriber verification within two months, and blocking international calls that fake Indian caller IDs. (NVI)
