Sanchar Saathi App Logo
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday (Dec 1, 2025) directed smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on new devices sold from March 2026 and to ensure that “the features (of the app) are not disabled or restricted”. The Hindu reviewed a copy of the instructions. The Sanchar Saathi app will be used to “verify the authenticity of IMEIs used in mobile devices,” the order said. It is unclear whether the app will have access to the IMEI number of the devices it comes pre-installed on, or whether users will have to enter the hardware identifier themselves.
In a statement, the DoT said the move was to “save citizens from buying non-genuine mobile phones, enable easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and increase the effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative”. The Sanchar Saathi app, first introduced as a portal in 2023, was used to report scam calls, allowed users to identify SIM cards registered in their names and remotely disabled phones after they were stolen.
Third order
This is the third order sent by the DoT after the notification of the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024, which was amended earlier this year with provisions to regulate almost any service using mobile numbers. On Friday, the government ordered messaging platforms to implement “SIM tethering,” restricting apps like WhatsApp to devices containing the SIM card used to log into the service. Friday’s order also required WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and other similar platforms to log users out of their web interfaces every six hours.
Monday’s (December 1, 2025) guidance, which one industry source said was issued without any consultation (much like Friday’s report on messaging platforms), came just days after another order for social media platforms to integrate a “financial fraud risk indicator (FRI)” into their systems. The FRI is a risk score for phone numbers identified by banks as being associated with fraud; a similar Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) was also ordered by the Ministry of Transport to be integrated into social media platforms with a request to “immediately deactivate these accounts”.
“The DoT guidelines on SIM cards are necessary to fill a specific security loophole that cybercriminals are exploiting to carry out large-scale, often cross-border, digital fraud,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday. “Instant messaging and calling app accounts continue to function even after the associated SIM card is removed, deactivated or moved abroad, enabling anonymous fraud, remote ‘digital arrest’ fraud and government calls using Indian numbers.”
Some smartphone makers have resisted government mandates to pre-install apps around the world. For example, Apple resisted proposals by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to install a spam reporting app after the firm balked at TRAI’s app permission requests, which included access to text messages and call logs. Apple later in 2017 came up with an “extension” that could be used within its iMessage SMS app without bulk sharing user data with the app.
The Sanchar Saathi portal was touted as a way to recover stolen or lost devices; The number of such recovered devices on a monthly basis reached 50,000 in October, the DoT said in a report last month.
Published – 01 Dec 2025 19:38 IST
