India mulls replacing SIMs over China chip fears

India is considering a proposal to replace older mobile phone SIMs after an investigation by the nation's top cybersecurity agency found samples of chipsets of Chinese origin in some of the cards that store subscriber identity information, said two officials in the know.

- Jatin Grover

The ongoing probe by the National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) and the home ministry has raised national security concerns, the officials said on the condition of anonymity. The first step could be replacing the older SIM (subscriber identity module) cards in mobile phones, they said, adding that the feasibility of such an exercise is being evaluated given the techno-legal challenges.

The NCSC has held meetings with executives of Vodafone Idea Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance Jio Ltd, and officials from the department of Telecommunications to plug security loopholes in the procurement of telecom resources such as SIM cards and find a framework to replace the SIMs.

Queries emailed to the NCSC, the home ministry, Department of Telecommunication (DoT), and the telecom operators did not elicit a response until press time.

India has 1.15 billion mobile subscribers and even a small percentage of SIM cards with China-origin chips raises concerns about data security. More so when the government has barred Chinese equipment makers such as Huawei and ZTE because of national security concerns.