In late October 2026, policy think tank Esya Centre released a report warning against the new OTT application SIM binding regulation being advanced by India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027, the rule requires OTT communication accounts such as WhatsApp and Telegram to remain continuously bound to verified SIM cards. The policy is intended to combat cyber fraud and curb SIM-related abuse.
The survey covered 2,033 consumers and 353 enterprises. The data shows that 81% of surveyed enterprises believe the SIM binding mechanism will not meaningfully improve security. The report notes that the one-size-fits-all approach would create significant negative impacts: scenarios such as outbound travelers switching to local SIMs, logging into accounts only over Wi-Fi, and web-based customer service background sessions could easily result in account disconnections and login interruptions. Small and medium-sized merchants that rely on OTT APIs and web-based tools to receive customer messages would be forced to incur additional hardware, system modification, and operation and maintenance costs. Fraud rings can still obtain SIM cards through fake KYC to bypass controls, while compliant entities would bear the brunt of the costs.
Esya Centre recommends that regulators abandon the one-size-fits-all model and instead adopt targeted, risk-based prevention and control measures.
