Telecom customers will not face any disruption in services due to Aadhaar updation

The government would ensure that telecom customers do not face any disruption in services due to a change in the know-your-customer regime following the court order on Aadhaar use, an official said. updation

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.

There are speculations that subscribers enrolled through Aadhaar-based authentication process may have to provide fresh documents to complete their KYC process again as a Supreme Court judgement has restricted use of Aadhaar-based verification by private entities.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had given time till October 15 to telecom operators for complying with the apex court order and asked them to close Aadhaar-based verification for their services.

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 the current regime to the Supreme Court-compliant regime," the DoT official said.

The DoT Wednesday held meeting with telecom operators to check the status of compliance and way forward.

Telecom operators have approached the DoT with a new e-KYC process as an alternative to Aadhaar-based verification. They have suggested an app-based customer enrolment method in which a photograph of the customer will be clicked by the SIM seller and embedded in the form along with a self-attested copy of any identity and address proof.

Under the proposed mechanism, consumer application form (CAF) has to be embedded with photograph and scanned images for an end to end digital paperless process.

The form under the proposed method will be then stamped by a watermark of the company along with retailer name, the circle where the transaction took place, date and time so that the images cannot be re-used.

Following validation, the app will send consumer application form (CAF) 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.

As an additional safeguard, the system will also verify that the geotag of customer's picture and final submission of a request by sale point is not more than 50 metres away.

The telecom operator will generate and send a five digit pin to an alternate number provided by the customer.

The number will be activated after the customer completes tele-verification by either entering PIN number sent to him or last 4 digits of identity proof during the call.

The DoT official said that the decision on the proposed method will be taken after a detailed presentation from telecom operators and evaluation by the department.

(With inputs from agencies.)