The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has made it mandatory for the telecom operators to use digitised consumer application form (CAF) instead of manually filled paper-based form. DoT has also made it mandatory to get a digitised photograph of a customer at the point of sale instead of pasting a photo offered by the customer. This is expected to help the operators fast-track requests for new connections.

Further, DoT has asked all operators to collect Aadhaar number along with customer application form for issuing new connections and store the unique identification number in their database.  In order to prevent any misuse of the information, DoT has directed operators to ensure that scanned images of CAF, photograph and identification proofs must not be stored or made available at the point of sale.

The move comes after the Apex Advisory Council for Telecom in India, a joint telecom industry initiative of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) sought the intervention of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to be allowed to use the Aadhaar biometric database to expedite subscriber verification process.  The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had, earlier, objected to this proposal as it was of the view that biometric authentication is not a foolproof system for establishing a mobile customer's proof of address.