SIM binding may require coordination between operating system service providers and app-based communication service providers, said Saikat Datta, co-founder of Deepstrat, while discussing the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) directions issued last week. Under these directions, the DoT has instructed WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Arattai, Snapchat, ShareChat, JioChat, and Josh to ensure that SIM cards remain continuously linked to their services within the next 90 days. For website or web-app-based access, the apps must ensure that users are logged out periodically (no later than 6 hours) and must offer a QR-code-based method to relink accounts.
“The directions lack clarity on what sort of SIM binding the government expects. We don’t know whether they mean device-level binding, SIM binding to the app, or device binding through a SIM card,” Datta pointed out. He explained that a SIM card operates through device firmware, which in turn connects to the operating system (OS). Currently, financial applications, including banking and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) apps, already enforce strict active-SIM rules to prevent fraud.
Discussing UPI’s active SIM requirements, Datta noted that to carry out SIM binding, operating system support would be required. “This is what happened with NPCI (National Payments Council of India). NPCI stopped supporting applications on Apple beyond iOS 17 because Apple didn’t agree to implement the measures they wanted retrospectively. A lot of devices became redundant because of it,” he said.
Key concerns with the directions:
Lack of an active SIM card cuts off connectivity channels:
Some, like Saurabh Pushpad, Chief Officer at Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), are concerned about what these directions will mean for people who may not always have active connectivity on their SIM cards.
“I have been working in the merchant navy for the past 12 years, and when we get ships or SIMs typically are totally de-activated, and this lack of connectivity can sometimes last for up to 40 days, if we are crossing the Pacific Ocean or travelling from China to Brazil. At such times we are only dependent on the Wi-Fi on the ships, and that becomes our only way to communicate with our families, or check the status of our finances, it all happens over WhatsApp,” he explained.
Pushpad added that while those in the merchant navy have access to satellite phones, they are too expensive for regular use. It is also impractical for crew members to buy SIM cards at various ports because security protocols to acquire a SIM card are equally complex in other parts of the world as they are in India. “Besides the merchant navy, the lack of access to communication apps without active SIM cards will also be a problem for those working on offshore oil rigs. They also do not get network there,” he said.
Even if Apple and Google comply, what about other OS providers?
Datta cited the…
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