After Supreme Court’s verdict on restriction on the use of Aadhaar-based verification by private entities, as per a report in a leading daily, there is a possibility of SIM card of half of Indian population could get disconnected. However, now the government and UIDAI has clarified on the same saying there is no such risk of disconnection.
According to ANI tweet, UIDAI in a joint statement clarified that a few reports in media that 50 Cr mobile no, almost half of total mobiles in circulation, are at risk of disconnection, are completely untrue and imaginary.
Department of Telecommunications & Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in a joint statement today clarified that a few reports in media that 50 Cr mobile no, almost half of total mobiles in circulation, are at risk of disconnection, are completely untrue & imaginary
— ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018
Around 25-30 crore telecom subscribers may be affected due to transition from Aadhaar-based authentication to a court-compliant system but they will not face any service related issues due to documentation, the DoT official stressed.
Reliance Jio has its entire customer base enrolled through Aadhaar-based authentication and other telecom operators too started following the process in 2017. “We will ensure that customers services are not affected. Whatever arrangements are put in place it will facilitate a smooth transition from current regime to the Supreme Court-compliant regime,” the DoT official said to PTI.
New e-KYC process to follow
DoT yesterday held a meeting with telecom operators to check the status of compliance after the teleoperators approached DoT with new e-KYC process as an alternative for Aadhaar verification. Telecom operators suggested DoT of an app-based customer enrolment method under which customers need to embed a photograph clicked by SIM seller in the form along with a self-attested copy of identity and address proof. The form then will be stamped by a watermark of the company which will have the retailer’s name, circle where transaction took place, date and time so that the images cannot be re-used.
After the validation, the app will itself send consumer application form to the system of telecom operator for verification of the form, identity and address proof; and after successful verification, the number assigned to the subscriber will be ready for tele-verification. The system will also verify that the geotag of customer’s picture and final submission of request by sale point is not more than 50 metres away.
The telecom operator will then send a five-digit PIN to an alternate number provided by the customer. The number will be activated after customer completes tele-verification by either entering PIN number send to him or last 4 digits of identity proof during the call.
With PTI inputs