The government of India has asked the Telecom Service Providers not to provide mobile connections for more than three months to any foreign tourist who visit India. The order came in the wake of foreigners misusing the SIM cards for various other illegitimate purposes.
As per the recently reviewed guidelines of the government,the Department of Telecom (DoT) has told the service providers that for the issuance of SIM cards to foreigners the passport with valid visa should be considered as a proof. The revised guidelines which have come into effect now are on the grounds of apex court decision to form a special committee in DoT.
"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," the fresh guidelines, which have been vetted by Union Home Ministry, said according to Press Trust of India.
The guidelines further added that, the address of a local reference or may be that of a tour operator can also be taken into consideration for address proof of a foreigner. On filling a Consumer Application Form (CAF) the revised guidelines state that in order to make sure that the information provided by the licensee is correct, the licensee has to sign the form before the activation of the SIM card.
"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.
