India restricts SIM sales India's telecoms regulator, the Department of Telecom (DoT), will try to put a crimp on mobile cybercrime by keeping a tight leash on visiting foreigners and their SIM cards. The Department has issued a ruling that stops service providers from providing a mobile connection for more than three months to any foreign tourist …
Looking to outsource to India, think again. I like how they mentioned cybercrime, gave some figures but didn't say if all of them ere actual tourists. I'm pretty sure people are not going to India to commit cybercrimes and then leave. There are plenty of other countries one can go; Eastern European, China and Russia.
Indeed, Russia is cheap as well as available. I have St Petersburg and Moscow Beeline PAYG 3G SIMs on the GO! tarif (1 ruble a MB, 30MB a dollar) and there are even cheaper plans available.
Oh - and should I ever have to visit India, briefly one hopes, the Russian Beeline PAYG SIM gives me unlimited data (throttled) for $8 a day.,, the new "Ocean" plan... Seems a cheap enough rate if I was interested in a little cybercrime :) :)
If it's not Pakistan's ISI or Dawood Ibrahim it'll be them generic, pesky Foreigners at it again. Already responsible for AIDS, pedophototerrorism, "Kaun Banega Crorepati", general nefariousness, the catastrophic moral erosion of the youth and the decline in Indian batting, they can now add "Short Break" Android Cybercrime to their roll call of shame. A good job India's entirely upstanding and blameless civil servants and politicians are on the case - particularly the honest dealing chaps at the DoT, who did such a sterling job in the recent spectrum auctions!
... they only try to police them furriners, but not themselves.
This is curious, for the simple reason that they're busily turning every citizen into a neat little biometric identity card, so it should be a no-brainer to tie SIM cards to that. Why aren't they doing that?
Not that I condone this sort of thing, for it is entirely too easy and inevitably does lead to a situation where Apu R. Citizen will no longer be allowed to do anything whatsoever without causing a fully-identified paper trail wherever he goes, down to the smallest purchases.
It's possibly not merely just curious that they single out them furriners, perhaps to test the waters, maybe with the intention to expand to everyone else later on. Just like, oh, the UK is doing with its biometric cards for "soft targets", pushing on regardless of the initial failure of the identity card for everyone. Apparently it's more acceptable to get fscked over by your own government as long as them furriner visiting guests get fscked over first.
"...neat little biometric identity card, so it should be a no-brainer to tie SIM cards to that. Why aren't they doing that?"
They have been tying PAYG SIMs to TANs (Tax Assessment/Avoidance Number) since at least 2003, although I seriously doubt anyone who has a criminal use for them will actually be bothered by a little thing like that. The going rate for a driving licence was a bottle of whisky last time I checked; the papers for a fake TAN in India will probably cost less than a bottle of Fake Tan from Boots in the UK.
"The Department has issued a ruling that stops service providers from providing a mobile connection for more than three months to any foreign tourist visiting India."
Because criminals always use the same SIM card for their activities, and would be stumped if they had to swap it for a new one ever three months or so.
Wait, no, did I say criminals? I meant tourists.
I allways wanted to visit India. I thought next spring would be the time to finally go. But alas - will have to take my money to a country, that doesn't ask me for proof of my grandmothers show size, before issuing me a b***y SIM card.
It was the same with Croatia for 2 years: In the first year my not-yet-expired (12 months) SIM still worked, so I didn't bother. Next year, I just went to Italy.
In the past, India also banned Walkie Talkies on the premise that it promoted crime. Then they found out that Radios were better than smoke signals for things like construction. If you can communicate easily, it means that criminals can also. However, the major reason the ban on two-way radios was lifted was to court the opening of GAP stores across the land.
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