TRAI Looks To Check Misuse Of Recalled Numbers

The telecom regulator has said its direction asking operators to regularly submit lists of surrendered numbers is aimed at preventing misuse because the 10-digit numbers are reassigned after six months.“Providing a revocation list is important to check misuse. If a consumer surrenders a number, the transactional one-time password will go to the original number. There was no way of redirecting and the new user may gain access to another’s identity,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Ram Sewak Sharma told ET. The move, he said, is aimed at protecting interests of consumers. Institutions such as banks and post offices would also be able to cross-check number validity with operators to mitigate security risks.

Sharma said that due to absence of new numbers, telcos have no choice but to reuse them.

Utility service agencies and departments will thus be able to easily update records with a consumer’s new mobile number. Institutions, said Trai, should not initiate any suo motu action but at least flag numbers based on the Mobile Number Revocation List to discourage transactions on a disconnected number.

“We have asked operators to provide a digitally signed list. Trai will re-arrange it in numerical order and that can be downloaded,” Sharma said, adding that the rationale for sorting the data was to conceal how many subscribers opted out of a telco’s network. – Business Telegraph