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Pre-install Sanchar Saathi app on new phones by March 2026, DoT tells phone makers
Sanchar Saathi app must be pre-installed on phones: DoT
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday (December 1, 2025) ordered smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on new devices sold from March 2026, and to make sure “that [the app's] functionalities are not disabled or restricted”. The Hindu has viewed a copy of the directions. The Sanchar Saathi app will be used to “verify authenticity of IMEIs used in mobile devices,” the order said. It is unclear if the app will have access to the IMEI number of devices it is pre-installed on, or if users will have to input the hardware identifier on their own.
In a statement, the DoT said the move was meant to “safeguard the citizens from buying the non-genuine handsets, enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and to increase effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative”.
The Sanchar Saathi app, in its initial web-only form, was launched in 2023, to give telecom users a new channel to report fraudulent phone calls, much like the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)'s DND app, the commercial spam equivalent. The government has heavily promoted the app through SMS campaigns, with 2.48 lakh complaints received so far on the platform, according to a dashboard on the site. Almost 2.9 crore requests to see mobile connections associated with a certain user have been made, the site says.
“Spoofed/Tampered IMEIs in telecom network leads to situation where same IMEI is working in different devices at different places simultaneously and pose challenges in action against such IMEIs,” the DoT said in its statement. “India has a big second-hand mobile device market. “Cases have also been observed where stolen or blacklisted devices are being re-sold. It makes the purchaser abettor in crime and causes financial loss to them. The blocked/blacklisted IMEIs can be checked using Sanchar Saathi App.” In a Google Play listing for the app, the DoT declared that the app does not collect any user data.
In a separate statement, the DoT also defended its order to messaging platforms. The “DoT's SIM‑binding directions are essential to plug a concrete security gap that cybercriminals are exploiting to run large‑scale, often cross‑border, digital frauds,” the DoT said in a statement on Monday. “Accounts on instant messaging and calling apps continue to work even after the associated SIM is removed, deactivated or moved abroad, enabling anonymous scams, remote “digital arrest” frauds and government‑impersonation calls using Indian numbers.”
Some smartphone makers have resisted government mandates to pre-install apps around the world. Apple, for instance, resisted TRAI's draft regulations to install a spam-reporting app, after the firm balked at the TRAI app's permissions requirements, which included access to SMS messages and call logs. Apple came up with an “extension” later in 2017 that could be used within its SMS app, iMessage, without sharing user data in bulk with the app.
The Sanchar Saathi portal has been touted as a way to recover stolen or lost devices; the number of such recovered devices on a monthly basis hit 50,000 in October, the DoT said in a release last month.
Published - December 01, 2025 07:38 pm IST
mobile phones
Source: TheHindu
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