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The Department of Telecommunications issued a circular on 17 August 2026 directing telecom operators to refuse new mobile connections to subscribers who have reached the prescribed SIM limit.
An individual may hold a maximum of nine mobile connections across all operators in most of India, and six in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and the North Eastern States.
From 23 August 2026 the DoT was to place a representative photograph of each maxed-out subscriber on the Digital Intelligence Platform, and from 24 August operators must download these daily.
Operators begin with post-facto, next-day verification, and any excess SIM active even for a day must be suspended immediately.
By 30 November 2026 operators must move to a real-time photographic check at the point of enrolment; the measure targets cyber fraud, including digital arrest scams.
DoT order sets the ceiling of nine connections per individual, and six in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and the North Eastern States.
DoT circular directs operators to deny new connections to subscribers who have reached the limit.
Representative photographs of maxed-out subscribers become available to operators on the Digital Intelligence Platform.
Operators begin downloading the photographs daily and screening applications, using post-facto next-day verification.
Deadline to switch from post-facto verification to a real-time photographic check during enrolment and activation.
Central department for telecom policy, licensing, spectrum and subscriber verification rules; issued the circular
Secure, centralised DoT platform that aggregates subscriber data records from telecom companies and is used for telecom fraud detection and verification across operators
DoT citizen portal on which a subscriber can check the mobile connections issued in their name and report any they do not recognise
GS Paper III > Internal security - challenges through communication networks, cyber security; GS Paper II > Government policies
General Awareness > Current affairs and government initiatives
General Awareness > Cyber fraud, digital payments security and government initiatives
General Awareness > Current affairs
A centralised DoT platform aggregating subscriber records from all telecom operators, used to detect telecom-enabled fraud and to enforce limits that no single operator can see.
The DoT citizen portal on which a person can see which mobile connections are registered against their identity and report unrecognised ones.
A fraud in which callers impersonate police or investigating agencies, claim the victim is under investigation or 'digital arrest', and extort money.
Checking a connection after it has been activated rather than before, which leaves a window during which a non-compliant SIM is live.