Less than a week after a scuffle between Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel over
provisioning of the e-SIM or embedded SIM, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allowed the use of e-SIMs while issuing guidelines for the same. e-SIM is a virtual variant of a SIM card in a mobile phone that uses software to provide the services that a SIM card does. Currently, eSIM technology is being deployed on Apple’s Watch 3, which is being sold by Jio and Airtel in India.
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“To cater the needs of modern technological developments in M2M/IoT, it has been decided to permit the use of ’embedded-subscriber identity module (e-SIM)’ with both single and multiple profile configurations with over the air (OTA) subscription update facility, as the case may be, as per the prevailing global specifications and standards,”the DoT said in a circular dated May 16. Prior to DoT’s guidelines, there was no specific policy for the technology, which is expected to expand to devices beyond smartwatches in the future. In absence of the guidelines, the service was regulated as per the broader unified licence (UL) conditions.
Read | How Apple’s new watch with e-SIM works
On May 11, Reliance Jio had filed a complaint with DoT saying that Bharti Airtel had violated UL conditions by not setting up domestically the network-related infrastructure for e-SIM facility that allows pairing of the Apple Watch with the iPhone. Airtel responded to the allegations by saying that the DoT was duly notified prior to the launch of Apple Watch 3 including product features, network architecture and lawful interception and we have also requested them to carry out a demonstration of the same. Under UL conditions, all the equipment for providing access to services should be deployed within India. Explaining the violation, Jio said the smartwatch and iPhone share the same mobile number, which with the e-SIM facility can be used to make or receive calls independent of the call status of the other device.
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In its guidelines issued on Thursday, DoT said: “The Licensee must ensure that while allowing the use of such e-SIMs in its network, it must fulfill all the security and lawful interception and monitoring related terms & conditions of license agreement.” It also said that the mobile companies will be permitted for updation of profile via OTA in order to facilitate mobile number portability and to avoid lock-in by telecom operators for all use case scenarios of Telecom dept allows use of e-SIMs, issues guidelinese-SIM.
provisioning of the e-SIM or embedded SIM, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allowed the use of e-SIMs while issuing guidelines for the same. e-SIM is a virtual variant of a SIM card in a mobile phone that uses software to provide the services that a SIM card does. Currently, eSIM technology is being deployed on Apple’s Watch 3, which is being sold by Jio and Airtel in India.
Advertisement
“To cater the needs of modern technological developments in M2M/IoT, it has been decided to permit the use of ’embedded-subscriber identity module (e-SIM)’ with both single and multiple profile configurations with over the air (OTA) subscription update facility, as the case may be, as per the prevailing global specifications and standards,”the DoT said in a circular dated May 16. Prior to DoT’s guidelines, there was no specific policy for the technology, which is expected to expand to devices beyond smartwatches in the future. In absence of the guidelines, the service was regulated as per the broader unified licence (UL) conditions.
Read | How Apple’s new watch with e-SIM works
On May 11, Reliance Jio had filed a complaint with DoT saying that Bharti Airtel had violated UL conditions by not setting up domestically the network-related infrastructure for e-SIM facility that allows pairing of the Apple Watch with the iPhone. Airtel responded to the allegations by saying that the DoT was duly notified prior to the launch of Apple Watch 3 including product features, network architecture and lawful interception and we have also requested them to carry out a demonstration of the same. Under UL conditions, all the equipment for providing access to services should be deployed within India. Explaining the violation, Jio said the smartwatch and iPhone share the same mobile number, which with the e-SIM facility can be used to make or receive calls independent of the call status of the other device.
Advertisement
In its guidelines issued on Thursday, DoT said: “The Licensee must ensure that while allowing the use of such e-SIMs in its network, it must fulfill all the security and lawful interception and monitoring related terms & conditions of license agreement.” It also said that the mobile companies will be permitted for updation of profile via OTA in order to facilitate mobile number portability and to avoid lock-in by telecom operators for all use case scenarios of Telecom dept allows use of e-SIMs, issues guidelinese-SIM.
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