In September 2016, the launch of Reliance Jio services in India drew early-morning queues for SIM cards. Customers lined up from 5 a.m. at a Karol Bagh outlet in West Delhi, while applicants in another city were warned of waits lasting several days because each store distributed only a limited number of cards. A store manager instructed customers to return at 6 a.m. with an Aadhaar card and join the line.
Expectation surrounding the new service, its identity-document requirements and the limited processing capacity of individual shops combined to create the queue. Customers were not simply buying a SIM; they were securing a place at the entrance to appointment, document verification and activation. The inherited 2017 date is corrected to the directly documented 2016 event.