The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued a reminder on know your customer (KYC) regulations to Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, raising national security concerns over customer self-authentication during home delivery of SIM cards. In a letter dated April 16, Reliance Jio informed Neeraj Mittal, secretary (T), DoT, of its plan to launch quick home delivery of SIM cards from April 25, similar to Airtel’s recent partnership with quick commerce platform Blinkit, which aimed to deliver SIMs within 10 minutes.
However, DoT objected to the practice of customers performing self-KYC after receiving mobile connections via home delivery, citing security risks. It directed both operators to ensure that proper Aadhaar-based KYC authentication is completed before issuing any new SIM cards.
The department further instructed all telecom operators to conduct Aadhaar-based self-KYC authentication before delivering active SIM cards to customers.
Following the directive, Reliance Jio has paused its SIM card home delivery plans. Airtel has also put its service on hold and is currently reviewing and reworking the offering to ensure full regulatory compliance.
