The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has put a pause on the recent partnership between Bharti Airtel and quick-commerce platform Blinkit, which promised SIM card delivery within a mere 10 minutes. The move came in less than a month after the service’s launch on 15 April 2025. While the initial process allowed customers to receive the SIM first and then complete an Aadhaar-based self-KYC for activation within 15 days, DoT has raised objections to this post-delivery KYC model.
The move came after DoT queried Airtel on the process being followed and made it clear that stipulated norms have to be complied with, the sources said.
The DoT recently circulated a mail to various telecom service providers, saying "the existing self-KYC process, as per the extant instructions, shall be followed scrupulously."
A person aware of the development said that the offering has been "put on hold, not discontinued".
On April 15, Bharti Airtel had announced this partnership with Blinkit for the delivery of SIM cards to its customers within ten minutes. According to the telco, the initial phase of the launch, the SIM delivery service will be available across 16 major cities, including metropolises such as Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipat, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Bhopal, Indore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.
There were plans to add more cities and towns over a period of time.
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