Fingerprints May Soon Become Compulsory For SIM cards

Fingerprints May Soon Become Compulsory For SIM cards

We may call it a great move from the side of govenment to cease the misuse of sim cards. At places, especially in India, people buy a new sim card very easily so that they could easily misuse it. Current physical verification system doesn't prevent SIM cards to fall into wrong hands, therefore the home ministry has asked the department of telecommunication (DoT) to explore an option of making it compulsory for cellphone service providers to take fingerprints or any other biometric feature of the subscriber before activating the mobile numbers.

Current physical verification system doesn't prevent SIM cards to fall into wrong hands

The Department of Telecom (DoT) recently received a suggestion from the Ministry of Home Affairs indicating that the DoT maintain a central database of all subscribers with bio-metric parameters akin to the Aadhaar, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in the Lok Sabha.

Last year, the DoT made it mandatory for a service provider to physically verify an applicant before issuing a SIM card. However, there have been reports that the process is not being adhered to.

The guidelines also made operators responsible for inaccurate information provided by subscribers for new pre-paid and post-paid connections. Under the new rules, authorised persons selling SIM cards must give an undertaking that he/she has seen the applicant and matched the photograph on  the application form.

Retailers and franchisees selling mobile SIM cards have to register police complaint against subscribers who submit forged documents to get mobile phone connections.

At present, pre-activated SIM cards attract a penalty of Rs 50,000 each in addition to an immediate disconnection of the mobile service.  

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Write by: RC - Saturday, August 10, 2013