The government has issued directions for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi App in mobile handsets to verify the genuineness of mobile handsets.

Akashvani correspondent reports that to safeguard the citizens from buying the non-genuine handsets, enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and to increase the effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative, Department of Telecommunications has directed the manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi mobile application on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India. The department has said that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application should readily be visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup. It added that the functionalities of the application should not be disabled or restricted. The department also directed mobile handset manufacturers and importers to make efforts to push the app through software updates to devices that have already been manufactured and are in the sales channels in India. The Department has asked the manufacturers to complete the implementation within 90 days and submit the report within 120 days.