The department of telecommunication (Dot) and unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) said that customers who wish to delink their Aadhar from mobile phones will need a fresh identity proof and a new (KYC). They jointly passed a statement that it is completely untrue that all 500 million mobile connections would be deactivated soon.
The Supreme Court of India said that mobile phones linked through Aadhar or issued through KYCs will not be deactivated in any case. There is no reason to panic or fear in the case.
The SC passed a judgement that about the constitutional validity of Aadhar, it directed that unique identities cannot be used by private companies including telcos. The government also said that customers can also ask the mobile companies to delink their IDs from the mobile connections.
The joint department said that if anyone wishes to change a old KYC with new KYC, he or she can do it by submitting a fresh KYC in that case. For that they can request the service provider for delinking their Aadhar, they can do it by submitting fresh OVDs. In any case mobile numbers will not be disconnected.
UIDAI and DOT have devised a new way of issuing the SIM cards. Now, photographs will be captured with a latitude, longitude and time stamp. The SIM cards would be authenticated by a OTP, one time password. The photo of Ids such as Aadhar, voter Id will be captured.
Mahesh Uppal, a telecom consultant and director at comfirst said telcos would surely love this move. In past, they have also benefitted from Aadhar based e-KYC. The process was fast, effective and efficient and was less exhausting then a paper based verification. The new form of verification must be acceptable to authorities apart from telcos as it is a matter of security, he added.
Ranjan Mathews, director general of cellular operations of India said that they have recommended the alternative of Aadhar based KYC to the telecom. They are considering it and hopefully they will approve it in future. At the moment we are reverting to the manual process. The Aadhar based KYCs are most secure so if Dot approves it, it would be best. He further explained that the SC has asked the UIDAI and no the telcos to delete the authentication logs. The restriction is on UIDAI that it can’t keep authentication logs more than 6 months. Telephone, AUA’s/KUA’s companies are not required to delete the logs.
AUAs and KUA’s are authentication user agencies that help to perform KYC for UIDAI platform. Mathews said that there is no need of delinking for en-masse, delinking will be done on users’ request.
There was also the speculation on Aadhar based payments (AEPs), UIDAI cleared them in a statement. After SC barring the mobile companies to use Aadhar there was a uncertainty in AEPs, but the Sc upholding the verdict that it can use it for government subsidies, UIDAI has directed the banks to continue the facility. AEPs provide hassle free banking services which include micro ATMs using AEPs.
