The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked stakeholders about a potential new rule that would prevent customers from porting their mobile phone number within 10 days of replacing their SIM. It follows previous industry analysis that fraudsters are porting numbers after they have succeeded in taking control of the user’s account via their SIM, thus complicating the process of restoring service to the customer and making it difficult to halt the abuse of a victim’s phone and online accounts.
Communications regulators around the world have sometimes been too cute when demanding increased convenience on behalf of customers. Rules that require telcos to rapidly transfer services or which prevent telcos from locking handsets can also be a gift to criminals. Not everything that a customer wants is in their best interests. Some telco concerns about how to limit fraud have been overridden by regulators and governments who played to the public gallery. The tide of opinion now appears to be turning as a consequence of the scale of fraud committed against consumers by organized criminals.
The deadline for responses to TRAI’s new rule is October 25. If adopted, the new rule would be enacted as the ninth amendment to India’s mobile number portability regulation. The draft wording is available here.
