Tech Telecom

The government is moving ahead with linking Aadhaar with mobile SIM cards and all unlinked phones will be deactivated after February 2018.

Aadhar-SIM linkage is made mandatory by the Hon’ble Supreme Court after it passed an order and provided a deadline of exactly one year- February 6, 2018, for the existing mobile subscribers to link their SIM card with their Aadhaar number.

Telecom operators are not allowed to store biometrics of their customers and at the time of verification, biometrics will be sent to UIDAI for verification in an encrypted form. Any storage of biometric by a service provider will lead to a criminal offence punishable with up to three years of imprisonment under the Aadhaar Act 2016.

The court had stated that “an effective process has been evolved to ensure identity verification, as well as, the addresses of all mobile phone subscribers for new subscribers. In the near future, and more particularly, within one year from today, a similar verification will be completed, in the case of existing customers.”

Following the order, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had issued instructions to all operators to verify all existing mobile subscribers (Prepaid & Postpaid) through Aadhaar based E-KYC process on or before February 6, 2018.

“Every telecom operator is required to intimate their existing subscribers through advertisement in print/electronic media as well as SMS about the orders of the Supreme Court for re-verification activity and shall upload the complete details of this activity on their website,” the department of telecommunications said in a notice issued in March.

The only procedure to link your Aadhaar number with a mobile number is to visit the nearest store of the telecom operator. Hopefully, this will help to prevent criminals, fraudsters, and terrorists from using SIMs in the name of ordinary citizens.