The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (MNP) (Ninth Amendment) Regulations, 2024. These amendment regulations are aimed at curbing the practice of porting mobile numbers by way of fraudulent SIM swaps or replacement by unscrupulous elements. Through these amendment regulations, an additional criterion for rejection of the request for allocation of a unique porting code (UPC) has been introduced. Specifically, the UPC should not be allocated if the request for UPC has been made before the expiry of seven days from the date of the SIM swap or replacement of the mobile number.
TRAI issued the Telecommunication MNP Regulations, 2009 dated September 23, 2009, laying down the basic business process framework for the implementation of intra-circle MNP in the country. To improve the MNP process from time to time, the Telecommunication MNP Regulations, 2009 have been amended eight times in the past. Based on the suggestions received from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), TRAI issued Draft Telecommunication MNP (Ninth Amendment) Regulations, 2023 dated September 27, 2023, soliciting comments from stakeholders on the issues raised therein. Based on the inputs received from stakeholders and its own analysis, the regulator has finalised the ninth amendment to the Telecommunication MNP Regulations, 2009.
On the aspect of the number of days for which a mobile number should not be made eligible for porting after SIM swap/replacement, a few stakeholders opined that a waiting period of 10 days after SIM swap/replacement is appropriate, some other stakeholders contended that a wait period of 10-days may inconvenience subscribers, especially in urgent porting situations, and therefore, a shorter wait period such as two-to-four days would be reasonable. The regulator has taken note of the stakeholders’ comments and is of the view that to prevent fraudulent porting after SIM swap/replacement, the wait period should neither be too small that it falls short of the objective of curbing fraudulent porting, nor it should be too long to inconvenience the subscribers. Accordingly, TRAI has decided to keep a waiting period of seven days after the SIM swap or replacement for a mobile number to become eligible for porting.
Regarding the need for porting restrictions in cases of SIM upgradation, a few stakeholders contended that in the case of SIM upgradation, where the consumer is already in possession of original SIM card in working condition, there is no case for SIM swap fraud, as the consumer’s identity can be ensured through know your customer (KYC) documents along with the one-time-password (OTP) based authentication on the original working SIM; therefore, MNP restrictions should not be applicable in case of SIM upgradation. TRAI notes that through the instructions dated August 7, 2018, DoT has laid down sufficient safeguards for ensuring SIM upgradation by only genuine customers. Accordingly, the regulator is of the view that there is no need for porting restrictions in case of SIM upgradation. TRAI has decided to introduce an additional criterion for rejection of the request for allocation of UPC through these amendment regulations. Specifically, the UPC should not be allocated if the request for UPC has been made before the expiry of seven days from the date of the SIM swap or replacement of the mobile number.
For implementing the additional criterion for rejection of the request for allocation of UPC introduced through these amendment regulations, modifications would have to be carried out in the telecommunication systems and processes of access providers and MNP service providers, which will be followed by testing of the scenarios before the pan-India implementation. Accordingly, the regulator has decided to keep the date of implementation of these amendment regulations as July 1, 2024.
