Airtel-Blinkit Free SIM delivery
Telecom company Airtel and Grocery delivery platform Blinkit Express recently started a SIM delivery service sitting at home to mobile users. The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has banned this service of Airtel and Blinking. In this service, users used to get Airtel’s SIM card in 10 minutes. After this, users were able to use mobile connections by Self-KYC. The Department of Telecommunications has directed Airtel’s Self-KYC service to stop with immediate effect.
Dot banned
The Department of Telecommunications has ordered Bharatiya Airtel to ensure that the Aadhaar-based KYC of the users has been completed before the SIM delivery. According to the new regulations of the central government, telecom companies will have to do Aadhaar based KYC before issuing SIM cards, so that fake SIM cards cannot be issued. According to ET Telecom report, the government has stopped the Idea with Airtel’s self-KYC.
What is Self-KYC?
After ordering the SIM card in this service of Airtel-Blainkit, a new SIM card is received at the user’s house. Users had to activate your SIM card by completing the Self KYC process through Airtel Thanks app. For this, the user had to go to Airtel’s store or to the authorized retailer. Under this service, the user was getting a SIM card delivery sitting at home for Rs 49. However, Airtel also had a condition that it would have to activate within 15 days of purchasing the SIM card.
This service of Airtel and Blinkit was launched in the 16 cities of Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Bhopal, Indore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kolkata and Hyderabad. This service has just been stopped following the order of DOT. In this case, no official response has been given by Airtel and Blinking. According to the report, the company is considering another option for the scheme.
What is the rules for issuing SIM card?
- According to DOT, no telecom operator can conduct Aadhaar based verification after SIM delivery or release.
- SIM card cannot be given to customers without base based authentication.
Last year itself, the Department of Telecommunications and the Central Government have tightened the rules regarding the SIM card. Now SIM cards cannot be issued without biometric verification. A new SIM card could also be purchased using other supporting documents other than Aadhaar. In view of the increasing cyber crimes, the Department of Telecommunications has banned the issuance of SIM cards without biometric authentication.
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