Sanchar Saathi is the government’s answer to a problem most Indians only discover after something has gone wrong: your phone is stolen, a SIM you never bought is registered to your Aadhaar, or a scam call keeps coming back from a new number every week.
It gathers tools that used to sit on separate portals into one place. It is free, it works from a browser without installing anything, and after a brief political row in late 2025 a lot of people now have strong opinions about it without knowing what it actually does. Here is the honest version.
What Sanchar Saathi Is
It is a Department of Telecommunications platform, live as a web portal since May 2023, with a mobile app added on 17 January 2025. It is available in 22 languages, and everything on it is free.
The portal is at sancharsaathi.gov.in. Everything the app does, the website does too, which matters if you would rather not install a government app on your phone.
The Modules, and What Each One Is For
TAFCOP — every SIM registered on your ID
Listed as “Know your mobile connections”. It shows every mobile connection issued against the identity document tied to your number, and lets you flag anything you do not recognise for disconnection. The cap is nine connections per person across all operators, and six in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and the North Eastern service areas. This is the module most worth using today, and we have a full walkthrough of how to check how many SIM cards are registered on your name.
CEIR — block a lost or stolen handset
Blocks a phone by its IMEI across every Indian network, so it will not register with any SIM from any operator. The same module unblocks it if you get the device back. It is free, and the full process, including the step most people skip, is in our guide to blocking a stolen phone with CEIR.
Chakshu — report a fraud call or message
This is for reporting the attempt: a scam call, a phishing SMS, a WhatsApp message impersonating a bank, a courier company or an electricity board. Use it when nothing has been lost yet. If money has already moved, Chakshu is the wrong tool — call 1930 instead, because that is the channel that can freeze funds.
KYM — check an IMEI before buying used
Know Your Mobile tells you whether an IMEI is genuine, duplicated, or already blacklisted as stolen. Anyone buying a second-hand phone should run this before handing over money, and a seller who objects to a two-minute check has answered your question.
Reporting international calls with fake Indian numbers
Offshore scam operations frequently spoof a +91 number so the call looks domestic. This module reports those specifically, which helps the operators identify and shut down the routes being abused.
Know Your Wireline ISP
The least dramatic module: it lists which wireline broadband providers actually operate at a given address or PIN code. Useful when you are moving house and want to know your real options rather than whatever the local cable operator claims.
Does It Work? The Numbers
Government figures released for the platform report roughly 1.4 crore app downloads and over 21.5 crore portal visits, about 42 lakh devices blocked and 26 lakh traced, of which more than 7.2 lakh were returned to their owners, around 1.43 crore fraudulent connections disconnected, and approximately ₹475 crore in fraud losses prevented.
Treat those as the government’s own accounting rather than independently audited figures. Even discounted, they describe a system that is being used at genuine scale.
The Pre-Installation Row, and Where It Ended
This is the part worth getting right, because a lot of coverage froze at the wrong moment in the story.
In late November 2025, the DoT issued an order requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi on all new devices and to prevent users from removing or disabling it. Reported in the first days of December, it drew immediate and sharp criticism over state overreach and the precedent of a non-removable government app.
On 3 December 2025 the mandate was withdrawn. Pre-installation is not compulsory, and the app can be uninstalled like any other. The telecom minister subsequently told Parliament that snooping “will never happen”.
The reversal had an unusual side effect: downloads jumped roughly tenfold, to around six lakh a day, as the controversy introduced the app to people who had never heard of it.
The misconception to avoid: a large number of Indian sites still state that pre-installation became mandatory in 2026. It did not. Installing it is entirely your choice.
Should You Install the App?
A reasonable position either way, and it depends on what you want from it.
Reasons to install it: CEIR blocking is far easier from a phone when you are standing in a police station having just lost the other one, and the app makes checking your SIM list and reporting scam calls a thirty-second task instead of a browser session.
Reasons to skip it: the web portal does everything the app does. If you use these tools twice a year, a bookmark is sufficient, and you keep the permission surface of your phone smaller.
What you should not do is decide based on the headlines from December 2025 without knowing they were superseded the following day.
What It Does Not Do
Being clear about the boundaries saves disappointment. Sanchar Saathi does not recover money — that is 1930 and the cybercrime portal. It does not stop spam calls, which is DND and your operator’s own filtering. It does not track a phone’s live location for you; tracing happens on the police side after a blocked device is used. And it does not remove your data from a stolen handset, which is Find Hub on Android or Find My on iPhone.
For the money side of fraud, the reporting window is what decides the outcome — the sequence in our guide to UPI fraud and recovery is the one to follow, and if the call you received was a fake police video call, read how the digital arrest scam works before you do anything else.
The Practical Recommendation
Whether or not you install the app, do two things this week from the website. Run the TAFCOP check and disown any connection you do not recognise. Then note the IMEI of every phone in your household somewhere you can reach without that phone — because the day you need CEIR is the day you cannot dial *#06#.
Those two actions take under ten minutes and cover the two failures that are genuinely expensive to fix later. We publish plain-language walkthroughs of this kind of India-specific digital admin regularly at Techleez, including a fuller look at protecting your phone from hackers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Sanchar Saathi app mandatory in India?
No. The November 2025 pre-installation order was withdrawn on 3 December 2025. Installing it is voluntary and it can be uninstalled.
Is Sanchar Saathi free?
Yes, every module on both the portal and the app is free. Any site charging a fee for these services is not official.
Can I use Sanchar Saathi without the app?
Yes. The website at sancharsaathi.gov.in offers the same modules and requires no installation.
What is the difference between Chakshu and calling 1930?
Chakshu reports a suspicious call or message before any loss. 1930 is the financial fraud helpline for when money has already been transferred and needs to be frozen.
Does Sanchar Saathi track my phone?
Not for you. Once a blocked handset is used with a SIM, the system registers it and that information goes to the police. It is not a live tracking service.
Which languages is it available in?
Twenty-two, covering the major Indian languages alongside English and Hindi.
Fold Smith
Fold Smith is a technology journalist and the lead editor of The Techleez, an India-first publication that decodes technology, digital payments, streaming and online culture for everyday readers. From UPI and fintech explainers to OTT streaming guides, Android tips and online-safety checklists, he personally tests the apps, tools and services featured on the site before recommending them. His focus is practical, research-backed guidance that helps Indian readers make smarter digital decisions — spend less, stream better and stay safe online. When he is not writing, he is usually tracking NPCI circulars, first-day-first-show box office numbers, or the next big OTT premiere.
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