According to an official Department of Telecommunication (DoT) note, mobile phone subscribers may soon be allowed to switch from a postpaid connection to prepaid and vice versa by using an OTP-based authentication and without a need to change SIM card.
In this respect, Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) had proposed the mechanism to the DoT, which has now directed telecom operators to carry out proof of concept (PoC) on the same.
The final decision on allowing the change in the account will depend on the outcome of PoC.
Earlier on April 09, 2021, the COAI had requested the DoT to allow mobile customers to migrate from prepaid to postpaid and vice versa without undertaking fresh KYC procedure and by using OTP based authentication.
Under the proposed process, mobile subscribers willing to change their existing mobile connection from pre-paid to postpaid or vice versa will have to send a request to their service provider through SMS, IVRS, website or authorised app. Following this, the subscriber will get a message acknowledging the request for conversion of the mobile account along with a unique transaction ID and an OTP which will be valid for 10 minutes. The successful verification of the OTP will be treated as consent of the subscriber and the telecom operator will inform him about the date and time from when the conversion will be considered effective.
