New Delhi, Nov. 30 -- Government of India's Department of Telecommunications has issued directions to app based communication services like WhatsApp and Signal to implement mandatory SIM binding. In practice, this could mean that the apps would only work if they have a SIM card present and active on the user's device.

"It has come to the notice of the Central Government that some of the app based communication services that are utilising mobile numbers for identification of their customers or for provisioning or delivery of services allow users to consume their services without availability of the underlying Subscriber Identity Module within the device in which the app based communication service is running, and this feature is posing a ...