Concern for the security issues and check misuse of prepaid and postpaid SIM cards or mobile connections in country, Government of India's Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked Telecom / Mobile Service Providers Not to provide any mobile connection/ SIM Cards for more than three months to any foreign tourist visiting India.
According to latest guidelines on "New prepaid and postpaid mobile connections", which came into effect immediately DoT has told to all mobile service providers that the proof for issuance of a postpaid and prepaid mobile connection to any foreigner would be the passport having a valid visa and validity of mobile connection should not be beyond the visa period and also not exceeding 3 months at the time even if the validity of Visa is beyond 3 months.
The new guideline also classified that 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 stay shall be taken.
This move comes in the wake of instances where prepaid mobile SIM cards and new connections used by foreigners were misused by some of the users even after the departure of the foreign nationals from India.
