The government would ensure that telecom customers do not face any disruption in services due to change in know-your customer regime following the court order on Aadhaar use, an official said.
Around 25-30 crore telecom subscribers may be affected due to transition from Aadhaar-based authentication to a court-compliant system but they will not face any service related issues due to documentation, the DoT official stressed.
There are speculations that subscribers enrolled through Aadhaar-based authentication process may have to provide fresh documents to complete their KYC process again as a Supreme Court judgement has restricted use of Aadhaar-based verification by private entities.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had given time till October 15 to telecom operators for complying with the apex court order and asked them to close Aadhaar-based verification for their services.
Reliance Jio has its entire customer base enrolled through Aadhaar-based authentication and other telecom operators too started following the process in 2017.
“We will ensure that customers services are not affected. Whatever arrangements are put in place it will facilitate a smooth transition from current regime to the Supreme Court-compliant regime,” the DoT official said.
The DoT Wednesday held meeting with telecom operators to check the status of compliance and way forward.
Telecom operators have approached the DoT with a new e-KYC process as an alternative to Aadhaar-based verification. They have suggested an app-based customer enrolment method in which photograph of customer will be clicked by the SIM seller and embedded in the form along with self-attested copy of any identity and address proof.