No WhatsApp or Telegram Without SIM Card, Says DoT

New Delhi: Very soon, people will have to connect messaging and voice-over-IP apps (like WhatsApp) to active SIM cards as the central government tries to plug gaps in cybersecurity and prevent cyber fraud from foreign countries.

Coming to companies offering app-based communication services in India, the telecommunications department said the central government has noticed that some of these apps allow users to consume their services without having the underlying SIM used to register such service within the device.

DoT said allowing people to use these services with a SIM card “poses a challenge to telecommunications cybersecurity as it can be misused to commit cyber fraud from outside the country”. The guidelines aim to prevent misuse of telecommunications identifiers and “protect the integrity and security of the telecommunications ecosystem”, it said. Companies must submit compliance reports to telecom companies within 120 days.

Accordingly, messaging services will only work if the SIM is present and active on the user’s device. This will affect messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Arattai, Snapchat, Sharechat, Jiochat and Josh.

If people are using the app over the web, they will log out at least every six hours and users will need to log in again using the QR code generated on the mobile phone where the underlying SIM card is located.

“After 90 days from the issuance of these instructions, ensure periodic (within 6 hours at the latest) logout from the web service instance of the Mobile Application, if provided, and allow the facility to allow the user to reconnect the device using the QR code,” he added.