New Delhi, August 17:With the increasing digitalization of social-economic activities in the country, the use of telecom resources, including mobile services, is increasing rapidly for availing online services. Digital connectivity is an enabler of social, economic and transformational mobility. Hence, it is important to promote the safe utilization of Telecom resources in order to facilitate the protection of mobile users.
In strengthening the Government of India’s commitment to foster a digitally inclusive society while maintaining the highest standards of security and customer protection, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Communications, Railways and Electronics & IT, today launched two reforms towards digital transformation and enhancing customer Protection KYC Reforms and Point of Sale(POS) registration Reform.
These two reforms are in the direction of earlier reforms introduced with the launch of Sanchar Saathi, a citizen-centric portal that has empowered India's fight against the menace of cybercrimes and financial frauds.
Point-of-Sale (POS) Registration Reforms- This reform introduces the process for mandatory registration of franchisees, Agents and Distributors (PoS) by Licensees. This will help in eliminating the rogue PoS who by fraudulent practices issue SIMs to anti-social/anti-national elements.
The PoS registration process includes indisputable verification of PoS by the Licensee. The process mandates a written agreement between the PoS and the Licensees. If a PoS indulges in any illegal activities, it will be terminated and blacklisted for a period of 03 years. All the existing PoS will be registered as per this process by Licensees within 12 months.
This will help in identifying, blacklisting, and eliminating rogue PoS, from the licensees’ system and provide an encouragement to the upright PoS.
KYC Reforms-KYC is a process to uniquely identify a customer and enable his traceability before providing him telecom services. Strengthening of the existing KYC process is one of the tools in protecting the subscribers of telecom services from any probable fraud and thereby enhancing the confidence of the general public in the digital ecosystem.
To prevent misuse of printed Aadhaar, the demographic details will mandatorily be captured by scanning the QR code of the printed Aadhaar. In case of disconnection of a mobile number, it will not be allocated to any other new customer till the expiry of 90 days. A subscriber has to undertake complete KYC for the replacement of his SIM and there will be a bar of 24 hours on outgoing & incoming SMS facilities.
In addition to thumb impression and iris-based authentication in the Aadhaar E-KYC process, facial-based biometric authentication is also permitted.
Introduction of business connections for issuing of mobile connections to entities (for ex. company, organizations, trusts, societies, etc). Entities can take any number of mobile connections subject to the complete KYC of all of its end-users. SIM will be activated only after successful KYC of end users and physical verification of the premise/address of the entity.
Department of Telecommunications, through the transformative reforms introduced, stands as a resolute commitment to safeguarding the interests of citizens of the country. Through rigorous and comprehensive measures, the department aims to fortify customer security and bolster protection against the growing threat of telecom fraud. By combining cutting-edge technology with vigilant oversight, Department is steadfast in its mission to promote the highest level of safety and trust within the telecommunications landscape to provide a secure and reliable communication environment for all.
