DoT Reportedly Extends SIM Binding Mandate Till the End of 2026

According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) it has extending its mandate for SIM-binding until the end of this year. First announced in November 2025 that the directive will “control” online fraud and identity misuse, by ensuring that registered identities remain verifiable and associated with telecom subscriber records at all times. One of the most prominent examples is that social media sites marked implementation struggles, while smartphone makers also urged for more time to implement the mandatory feature, according to a report.

Firms Like Apple Said to Have Flagged Technical Constraints

According to Moneycontrol, “Companies were individually told about the extension of the SIM binding mandate deadline beginning March 30,” according to sources familiar with the issue. It quoted an anonymous source as saying ‘The department has extended the timeline and informed all stakeholders.

It is said that implementation challenges were cited by social media and instant messaging platforms such as Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp. A long deadline was also awaited for popular smartphone makers and operating system providers such as Apple and Google. This report cites that Apple identified technical limitations in the iOS system and sought more time as it developed viable approaches.

In talks with the DoT, WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, was said to be discussing a technically feasible strategy for what would have been considered. The instant messaging service, which is already pursuing the addition of support for SIM binding in India as per DoT’s directive, is also working on adding support to this application. First revealed in February, the functionality was reportedly being developed by the app, which suggested that it would tell users to know they must check their smartphone’s SIM card is on.

But if there’s any such feature still in the pipeline, it is yet to be implemented in WhatsApp public version and will not be available for use with its own app.

What Is SIM Binding?

The Department of Telecommunications issued it is an amendment to the T telecom Cyber Security (TCS) Rules, 2024. The Telecommunication Cyber Security (TCS) Amendment Rules, 2025, have been issued a notification of the new framework as the updated framework. Under the legislation, message services must implement an ongoing SIM validation (in which users’ account is required to be linked to active SIM card that was present at the time of registration). Service providers were required to have 90 days of implementation time under the DoT.

It covers messaging services that are categorized as Telecommunication Identifier User Entities, or TIUEs and is under the scope of the mandate. This is a collection of popular messaging services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Snapchat and Messenger.

This moves are reportedly in an attempt to stop the growing cases of digital impersonation, financial fraud and online scams and misuse of identity — all conducted through messaging apps.