Supreme Court verdict on Aadhaar: No major impact on telecom operators

A general feeling emerged that the telecom industry will not be affected in a major way in monetary terms for doing physical verification

The Supreme Court striking down Aadhaar authentication by companies may have jolted the telecom industry in terms of getting new customers, but returning to its old ways of doing verification is not going to cost the operators a fortune.

According to estimates of mobile operators, the use of Aadhaar authentication was easy and cost-effective because it used to cost just Rs 2.5 for authenticating a subscriber. With physical verification, the costs are likely to go up to around Rs 25, but that will be manageable for the industry. The on-boarding time, however, will increase to a few days whereas in