Telcos should provide location grid of bulk users: Department of Telecom

Telecom operators will now have to provide the location grid of the premises of bulk subscribers during physical verification for issuing new connections, according to a DoT order.

Telecom companies will have to provide a point of sale code through a portal to law enforcement agencies, the order said.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) in an order issued on July 20 asked telecom operators to remove or correct gibberish text in consumer application form of all existing connections that were given to customers using electronic know you customer (e-KYC) and Digital KYC processes.

"In case of issuing new mobile connections to the bulk subscriber, during the physical verification of the premises of bulk subscribers, the latitude/longitude of the premises of the bulk subscriber and data and time of the inspection shall be captured and the same shall be inserted in the CAF and database," the order said.

The move will ensure that physical verification of the bulk connections is done by telecom companies.

DoT has mandated telecom companies to conduct inspection of premises of bulk connection users every six month and capture the location grid.

DoT has found gibberish entries in the consumer application form (CAF) submitted by telecom operators and they have been asked to remove or correct such anomalies in the existing CAFs collected through e-KYC and D-KYC processes.

The Department had allowed telecom operators to use Aadhaar based e-KYC process from August 2016 but discontinued it following the Supreme Court judgement in Aadhaar related matter in September 2018.

Thereafter, DoT started D-KYC whereby telcos were allowed to submit scanned copy of customer's photo ID and address proof and digitally filled basic details of the subscriber in CAF. All the phone connections at present are issued through D-KYC process.

Under the new rules, telecom operators will have to verify details of the company from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs before activating the SIM cards.

DoT has ordered the implementation of the new process "within three months from the date of issue of these instructions".