The new directive by the DoT would serve a big blow to companies like Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel
The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) on Friday barred the telecom companies from Aadhaar-based authentication in compliance with the recent order of Supreme Court and directed the companies to prepare and adopt an alternate digital process for verification.
The new directive by the DoT would serve a big blow to companies like Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, which now have to return to the more time consuming and costly process of verifying subscriber details physically, till the implementation of an alternate method.
To adopt alternate digital process
Telcom companies should be prepared for adopting an alternate digital verification process, which would have a customer acquisition form (CAF). The CAF would include live photographs of consumers and scanned images of any proof of subscribers identity and address, that will make the whole process paperless, the DoT said in a notification.
“All licensees are to discontinue the use of Aadhaar eKYC (electronic know your customer) service of Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) both for verification as well as for issuing new mobile connections,” it said.
To comply with the apex court order and report their compliance, the telecom operators have been given the deadline of November 5. In addition, the telecom companies need to give the proof of concepts of an alternate digital method of subscribers verification for approval, by November 5.
Re-verification to stop with immediate effect
The telecom department has directed all the operators to stop, with immediate effect, the using of Aadhaar card-based e-KYC for re-verification of their existing consumers.
The DoT further said that the alternate digital process can be provisionally implemented by all the telecom service providers (TSPs). Any amendment in this process required by the Government shall be completed within a period of one month.
The DoT’s directive come after the September 26 order of Supreme Court that barred the use of Aadhaar card by private enterprises for digital verification.
