TRAI seeks views on new licence for new service under Telecommunications Act for sale of foreign SIMs & eSIMS

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has sought comments on whether to introduce a new service authorisation under the Telecommunications Act for sale of foreign SIMs and eSIMS for machine-to-machine and Internet of Things devices meant for exports.

In a consultation paper released Friday, TRAI said there are practical difficulties in fitting the specific use case in the existing no-objection policy and KYC compliance requirements. The current NOC policy requires extensive KYC documents and also strictly limits in-India activation, mainly used for international roaming SIMs/eSIMs.

However, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that while these devices will primarily operate in export destinations, in-India activation for short periods of testing, sampling or prototyping is often necessary, and is not covered under the current regulatory regime.


Local activation is required since Indian manufacturers, making products that incorporate M2M/IoT services for the international market, require foreign SIMs/eSIMs to function abroad, which are imported and integrated in the product before they are exported.

In a letter to the DoT, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said the NOC policy for sale of foreign SIMs should be expanded to allow for this specific use case, with the caveat that these SIMs can only be functional outside India.

In a bid to streamline the compliance process for the manufacturing of export-oriented products, stakeholders have been asked to provide inputs on the eligibility conditions, validity, authorisation fees, penalties and more.

The regulator has also sought views on any regulatory issues related to the RBI, Customs and other agencies in import of foreign SIMs/eSIMs for use in M2M/IoT devices meant for exports.

The M2M/IoT ecosystem in India is currently in an early stage of growth but holds immense potential for future expansion and digital transformation, with use cases across automotive, utilities, healthcare, surveillance, agriculture and more.

The government has previously released the National Telecom M2M Roadmap (2015) and the National Digital Communication Policy-2018 (NDCP-2018), underscoring the growing importance of the sector.

Under the new telecom act, M2M/IoT service providers are required to obtain access service authorisation under the Unified License regime, for use in India. Critical services are required to undergo mandatory testing.