Govt limits validity of foreigners' SIM cards

To prevent any misuse of SIM cards, the Centre has directed all telecom service providers not to issue mobile connection for more than three months to any foreign tourist visiting India.

As per the Department of Telecom (DoT) instructions to telecom companies mobile connections should be given to only those foreigners who have passport with valid visa.

“Any mobile connection issued to a foreigner should not have validity beyond the validity of the visa. In case of foreign tourist, the validity of connection should not be beyond the visa period and also not exceed three months at a time even if the validity of the visa is beyond three months," said the guidelines.

For address proof of a foreigner, the address of the local reference, which may also be that of the tour operator, shall be taken and in case there is no local reference, the address of his residence shall be taken, the guidelines said.

According to the revised guidelines issued on filling a Consumer Application Form (CAF), the DoT has made it mandatory for the licensee to sign the form prior to activation of the SIM card thereby certifying that the information provided on the form is correct.

"The date of sale of SIM and activation of SIM is required to be established from the entries in the CAF. For this purpose, entry of date is to be made with the signature of subscriber at the time of filing of CAF," it said.

The revised guidelines issued after several instances where mobile connections used by foreigners were misused by some of the people even after the departure of the foreign nationals from the country, official sources said.