GUWAHATI: The Department of Telecommunications has issued a new circular tightening how it enforces the long-standing cap on mobile connections per person.
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Under rules dating back to 2012, an individual can hold a maximum of nine mobile connections across all telecom operators and licensed service areas nationwide.
But in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, and the North-East, that limit is lower, capped at six connections per person. Anyone found holding more than the permitted number has been required to get the excess numbers disconnected, failing which operators would disconnect them anyway.
What's changed with the August 17, 2026 circular is the mechanism for actually catching violators before they can add more connections, not just after.
The DoT's Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) cross-references subscriber data submitted by all telecom operators to identify individuals who've already hit their limit, and groups these connections under the subscriber's name so any operator can check them.
Starting August 23, 2026, telecom companies will get daily access to photo IDs of subscribers who've already touched their prescribed limit, pulled from this platform.
A day later, from August 24, 2026, operators must begin using these photos to screen new applicants at the point of purchase, checking whether someone applying for a new SIM already has the maximum connections allowed, and turning down the request if so.
This will initially work on a next-day basis, meaning a violation gets caught and the connection suspended a day after activation, rather than blocked in real time.
But the DoT has set a deadline of November 30, 2026, by which operators must build this check directly into their live enrollment process, so that a violation is caught immediately at the moment of activation rather than after the fact.
In the meantime, any connection that's found to cross the permitted limit will be suspended right away until the matter is resolved. The circular names the respective licensed service areas as the authority responsible for resolving any disputes that come up during implementation.