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Revocation List Mandatory To Check Misuse: TRAI’s Sharma

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that providing a list of withdrawn mobile numbers online is mandatory for telecom service providers to effectively check misuse since telcos due to deficiency of newer series, re-allocate 10-digit mobile numbers to another user after a six-month gap.

“Providing a revocation list is important to check misuse. If a consumer surrenders a number, the transactional one-time password or OTP will go to the original number. There was no way of redirecting, and the new user may have control of identity,” Trai chairman Ram Sewak Sharma told ETT.

Last month, the telecom regulator had asked service providers— Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea as well as state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to provide monthly data on disconnected mobile numbers to enable various institutions or utility service providers to update their databases.

“We have asked telecom operators to provide a digitally signed list. Trai will mix it and arrange it in numerical order that can be downloaded for appropriate usage,” Sharma said and added that the rationale behind rearranging it is to not disclose how many subscribers opt-out of a particular telco’s network.

The watchdog, however, separately publishes telephony subscription data of industry players.

In September this year, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel together have lost nearly 50 lakh users while arch-rival Reliance Jio has added close to 70 lakh new subscribers to its network, according to Trai.

India’s wireless subscriber base increased by 0.23 per cent to reach 117.37 crore in September 2019 from 117.1 crore at the end of August this year.

Sharma said that following the absence of new numbers, telecom carriers have no choice but to reuse them, unlike the case of Aadhaar, India’s unique identity which has a surplus store of 100 billion numbers with each one associated with a single user.

Institutions, according to the regulator, should not initiate any suo motu action but at least flag numbers basis the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) to discourage transactions on a consumer’s changed mobile number.

The move, according to the top official, is aimed at protecting consumers interest and institutions such as banks and post offices could also additionally cross-check with operators to mitigate security risks. – Telecom Live

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