Alternate Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers

Alternate Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers

Government of India

Ministry of Communications

Department of Telecommunications

(Access Services Wing)

Sanchar Bhawan, 20, Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110 001

File No: 800-26/2016-AS.II

Dated: 03.04.2019

To,

All CMTS/UASL/Unified Licensees (having Access Service Authorization) Licensees.

Subject: Instructions for Alternate Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers-regarding.

This is in continuation to this office letter of even number dated 06.11.2018 vide which instructions for Proof of Concept (PoC) for Alternate Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers were issued. After successful completion of PoC and based on the suggestions received from stakeholders, some changes have been introduced in the process and it has been decided by the competent authority to adopt the following Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers.

a. The entire process shall only be used through the authenticated applications (App) hosted by the Licensees.

b. The access of the App shall be controlled by the Licensees and it should be ensured that the same is not used by unauthorized persons. The App shall be accessed only through login-id & password controlled mechanism given by Licensees to its authorized Point of Sale (POS). If there are multiple agents working in PoS, then each PoS agent shall be registered with Licensee and be given a separate login-id & password for accessing the App.

c. The App shall be installed only on those POS device which are having SIM card (mobile number) registered with the Licensees.

d. The customer desirous of obtaining a new mobile connection shall visit the authorized POS location of the Licensee or vice-versa. The original Proof of Identity/Proof of Address (PolI/PoA) documents shall be in possession of the customer.

e. The Licensee must ensure that the Live photograph of the customer is taken at POS terminal and the same photograph is embedded in the CAF. Further, the system application of the Licensee shall put a water-mark in readable form having CAF number, GPS coordinates, POS name, unique POS Code (assigned by licensees) and Date (DD:MM:YYYY) & time stamp (HH:MM:SS) on the captured live photograph of the customer.

f. The App of the licensees shall have the feature that only live photograph of the customer is captured and no printed photograph of the customer is captured. The background behind the customer while capturing live photograph should be of white color and no other person shall come into the frame while capturing the live photograph of the customer.

g. Similarly, the live photograph of the original POI/POA documents (placed horizontally) shall be captured vertically from above and water-marking in readable form as mentioned above shall be done. No skew or tilt in the mobile device shall be there while capturing the live photograph of the original documents.

h. The live photograph of the customer and his/her original documents shall be captured in proper light so that they are clearly readable and identifiable.

i. Thereafter, all the entries in the CAF shall be filled as per the POI/POA documents and information furnished by the customer. In those POI/POA documents where QR code is available, such details can be auto-populated by scanning the QR code instead of manual filling the details. For example, in case of physical Aadhaar/e-Aadhaar downloaded from UIDAI where QR code is available, the details like name, gender, date of birth and address can be auto-populated by scanning the QR available on Aadhaar/e-Aadhaar.

j. Once the above mentioned process is completed, an One Time Password (OTP) message containing the text that ‘please verify the details filled in form before sharing OTP’ shall be sent to customer’s own alternate mobile number. Upon successful validation of the OTP, it will be treated as customer signature on CAF. However, if the customer does not have any own alternate mobile number, then mobile number of his/her family members/relatives/known persons may be used for this purpose and be clearly mentioned in CAF. In any case, the mobile number of POS registered with the Licensee shall not be used for customer signature. The Licensee must check that the mobile number used in customer signature shall not be the mobile number of the POS.

k. The POS shall provide a declaration about the capturing of the live photograph of customer and the original POI/POA documents. For this purpose, the POS shall be verified with One Time Password (OTP) which will be sent to his mobile number registered with the Licensee. Upon successful OTP validation, it shall be treated as POS signature on the declaration. The live photograph of the POS agent shall also be captured in this POS declaration.

l. Subsequent to all these activities, the application shall give information about the completion of the process and submission of activation request to activation officer of the Licensee, and also generate the transaction-id/reference-id number of the process. POS shall intimate the details regarding transaction-id/reference-id number to customer for future reference.

m. The authorized representative of the Licensee shall check and verify that:

(i) information available in the pictures of POI/POA documents is matching with the information entered by POS in CAF.

(ii) live photograph of the customer matches with the photo available in the POI/POA documents.

(iii) All of the necessary details in CAF including mandatory fields are filled properly.

n. On successful verification, the CAF shall be digitally signed by authorized representative of the Licensee. Only after this activity, the SIM card shall be activated and tele-verification as per the prevailing guidelines shall be done before final activation of the services. However, if the customer has given his own alternate mobile number, then tele-verification through the use of 5-digit OTP pin shall be done for activation of final services.

Only two mobile connections shall be provided per day by using any one of the POI/POA documents to a customer by a Licensee (including all POS in that LSA) using the above mentioned alternate digital KYC process. However, in case more than one connection is issued, the entire process as mentioned above shall be repeated for issuing each connection.

The above mentioned digital KYC process is an alternative process to the existing process of issuance of mobile connections to subscribers and shall also be applicable for outstation and foreign customers. The additional safeguards in prevailing guidelines in respect of outstation and foreign customers shall also be followed in the above mentioned digital KYC process. However, in case of outstation customer, as an alternate method, the verification of local reference may be done by sending an OTP on the mobile number of local reference submitted by customer and upon successful OTP validation only, the local reference may be treated as tele- verified.

The above mentioned alternate digital KYC process shall be implemented within a month from the date of issue of these instructions.

The existing instructions in general and particularly those issued vide letter No. 800-09/2010-VAS dated 09″ August 2012 and all other instructions shall remain the same for issuing of mobile connections to new subscribers.

sd/-

Prashant Verma

Assistant Director General (AS-II)

Source: DoT