The Department of Telecommunications\u2019 (DoT) recent mandate for binding over-the-top (OTT) communication service applications to a SIM connection will ensure complete accountability and traceability, and prevent misuse of telecom resources, said an industry association on Monday.<\/p>\n
In its latest directive, the telecom department has called for SIM binding to prevent the misuse of telecommunication identifiers, telecommunication equipment, telecommunication network, or telecommunication services to bolster cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
As per the mandate, this requires that the application-based communication services \u2013 such as WhatsApp and Telegram \u2013 must remain continuously linked to the SIM card, which is associated with the mobile number used for identification of customers, users, or for provisioning or delivery of services.<\/p>\n
The DoT issued the directions on November 28, and has asked OTT firms to implement SIM binding within 90 days. Failure to do so would attract penal provisions.<\/p>\n
The DoT also said that web or desktop versions of apps must automatically log users out every six hours and require reauthentication through QR code pairing.<\/p>\n
Keeping OTT communication services applications continuously bound with the SIM connection has been a long, persistent demand of Indian telecom incumbents, who believe such a move may provide subscribers with relief from online scams and digital fraud.<\/p>\n
At present, app-based communication services link to a subscriber\u2019s mobile SIM card only once during initial installation and verification. Subsequently, such applications continue to function, even if a SIM card is removed, replaced, or deactivated, creating significant scope for fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cCOAI firmly believes that this mechanism will significantly reduce spam and fraudulent communications perpetrated through these platforms and help mitigate financial frauds,\u201d said SP Kochhar, director-general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).<\/p>\n
\u201cTelecom operators stand fully committed to supporting seamless implementation of this directive,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Delhi-based association represents India\u2019s top telco incumbents \u2013 Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi).<\/p>\n
Kochhar said now the telecom department should recommend application-based communication services to implement measures for curbing spam and fraud communications, similar to telcos\u2019 initiatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, COAI urges DoT to engage with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ensure that for all financial transactions, the primary factor of authentication should mandatorily be through SMS OTP, which continues to remain the most secure, operator-verified channel with guaranteed traceability,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Presently, smartphone applications such as Spotify and Meta Platforms-owned Instagram, among others, send OTPs via online channels, including WhatsApp, for user verification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Telecommunications\u2019 (DoT) recent mandate for binding over-the-top (OTT) communication service applications to a SIM connection will ensure complete accountability and traceability, and prevent misuse of telecom resources, said an industry association on Monday. In its latest directive, the telecom department has called for SIM binding to prevent the misuse of telecommunication identifiers, telecommunication equipment, telecommunication network, or telecommunication services to bolster cybersecurity. As per the mandate, this requires that the application-based communication services \u2013 such as WhatsApp and Telegram \u2013 must remain continuously linked to the SIM card, which is associated with the mobile number used for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-977619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}