About two weeks after quick commerce major Blinkit and telecom giant Airtel entered into an industry-first partnership to deliver SIM cards to users in 10 minutes, the duo seem to have quietly pulled the plug on the partnership.
A quick search on Blinkit for Airtel’s SIM cards showed no results.
Inc42 has reached out to both the companies to get a better understanding on the reason behind discontinuation of the service. Meanwhile, a report by PTI said that the collaboration has been “put on hold, not discontinued".
The report added that the service was suspended after the department of telecommunication (DoT) questioned the telecom company if SIM distribution norms pertaining to KYC were being followed in their dissemination.
Citing sources, the news agency reported that the DoT sent emails to various telecom operators a few days ago to ensure that “existing self-KYC process, as per the extant instructions, shall be followed scrupulously".
The norms in question are the self-KYC process that the DoT introduced some years ago. Under the self-KYC process, the issuance of mobile connection to customers is done through an app/ portal-based online process wherein they can apply for mobile connections remotely and get SIMs delivered at their door steps.
The SIM activation process requires the electronic verification of the customer’s proof of identity and proof of address via DigiLocker or UIDAI (Aadhar).
Since the introduction of this process, telecom companies Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone have been providing SIM delivery services. Meanwhile, Airtel also has a partnership with ecommerce giant Amazon.
For Blinkit partnership, the SIM activation process was stipulated to be done via Aadhaar-based KYC authentication, as per the telecom company’s communication on April 15.
The customers would get an option to choose from postpaid and prepaid plans or trigger mobile number portability into the Airtel network.
“Blinkit takes care of the delivery, while Airtel makes it easy for customers to complete self-KYC, activate their SIM, and choose between prepaid or postpaid plans. Customers can also opt for number portability, all at their convenience,” Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa said.
In the initial phase of the launch, the SIM delivery service was available across 16 major cities, including Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jaipur, among others.