Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) introduced a number of new pointers in regards to the alternative of misplaced, broken or stolen SIM playing cards on March 14. The principles come into impact beginning right this moment (July 1). As per the rules, cell phone customers should now await a specified time frame earlier than they are going to be allowed to modify community suppliers. As per the regulator, this transfer is claimed to be geared toward curbing fraudulent SIM replacements and switching telecom suppliers.

New TRAI pointers

As per the round issued by TRAI, customers will now have to attend seven days after they’ve changed stolen, broken or misplaced SIM playing cards to modify community suppliers. These new guidelines come into impact right this moment following the Ninth Modification of the Cell Quantity Portability (MNP) Rules, launched in 2009. MNP rules have been amended eight occasions prior to now.

Notably, MNP rules provide a manner for customers to modify between telecom service suppliers in India whereas retaining their distinctive cellular numbers. In accordance with TRAI, its new guidelines are geared toward combating fraudulent SIM swaps or replacements performed by nefarious actors.

TRAI defines SIM swap as a technique of “acquisition of a brand new SIM card instead of a misplaced or non-working SIM card by the prevailing subscriber”. The regulator permits cell phone customers to acquire a brand new SIM card if the outdated one is misplaced, stolen or broken. As per the rules, telecom suppliers will now be prohibited from issuing a novel porting code (UPC) to customers within the preliminary seven days following the alternative or swap of the SIM. For this, a brand new standards for rejection of the UPC issuance has been launched. To situation a UNP, cellular service suppliers should examine for the next situations:

1. The cellular quantity has been ported earlier. If that’s the case, a interval of 90 days has not elapsed for the reason that final date of porting.
2. One other porting request from the identical cellular quantity is in course of.
3. A UPC has already been issued to the cellular quantity and hasn’t expired.

If any of the aforementioned situations are legitimate, the community supplier shall be forbidden from producing a UPC and should inform the subscriber of the rationale through an SMS, as per TRAI.

The draft of those guidelines was finalised after a suggestion by the Division of Telecommunications (DoT), in keeping with TRAI. Conferences had been additionally held with stakeholders together with due evaluation, following which the modification was introduced.