On Tuesday, the Department of Telecom launched a new portal named Sanchar Saathi which will help mobile phone users to block and track their lost or stolen mobile phones across India. Moreover, users will also be able to view all the mobile phone connections which have been issued on their documents. “People will be able to block, track and check the genuineness of a used device before buying them,” said Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw while launching the portal.
“Under PM Modi’s vision for Telecom user’s safety we have launched Sanchar Saathi Portal under which there are three reforms for telecom users’ safety that will help protect a user’s digital identity. These reforms perfectly fit the PM’s vision to benchmark India’s telecom sector globally,” he said.
The first reform is the Centralised Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) which helps block, track and trace a mobile phone if it is lost or stolen. If the SIM card is removed and a new SIM card is inserted still the phone can be blocked. The CEIR will help keep phone data and…
— ANI (@ANI) May 16, 2023
The first reform, as per the Minister, is the Centralised Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) which helps block, track and trace a mobile phone if it is lost or stolen. “If the SIM card is removed and a new SIM card is inserted still the phone can be blocked. The CEIR will help keep phone data and personal belongings safe,” the Minister said while addressing the masses at the launch event.
The second reform is Know Your Mobile. The consumer will get the facility to know how many SIM cards are there in their name, and what kind of documents have been attached. The users can now turn off their SIM cards as phone numbers are connected to KYC. “This will be done with an AI algorithm,” the Minister said.
The third reform is the 'Astra' an all AI-based framework to prevent cases where a fraudster takes multiple connections using different identities. Till now over forty thousand Point of Sale (POS) systems that were supporting these fraudsters have been blacklisted with Astra.… pic.twitter.com/Aqwj8BfcnH
— ANI (@ANI) May 16, 2023
The third reform is the ‘Astra’, an all AI-based framework to prevent cases where a fraudster takes multiple connections using different identities. According to the Minister, till now over forty thousand Point of Sale (POS) systems, that were supporting these fraudsters, have been blacklisted with Astra. With the help of Astra, 87 crore connections were traced, about 40 lakh connections were found fake, and 36 lakh connections have been closed following a detailed procedure. “In two cases it was found that one person has taken 5200 connections and the other has taken 6900 connections,” he added at the launch event.
He said that consumers can use the TAFCOP service on Sanchar Saathi to see if other mobile numbers are using their names without their knowledge or consent.
The facilities for Sanchar Saathi were created by C-DoT. The Department of Telecom’s technology development division has been successful in adding a capability to monitor the usage of counterfeit mobile phones across all telecom networks.
Prior to a mobile device’s sale in India, the government has now made it essential to provide the IMEI, a 15-digit unique numeric identity. The list of allowed IMEI numbers will be available to the mobile networks, allowing them to verify for the presence of any unlicensed mobile devices on their network.
The IMEI number of the device and the mobile number associated with it will be visible to telecom carriers and the CEIR system, and the data is utilised in some states to trace your lost or stolen mobiles using CEIR.
One of the typical methods used by criminals to avoid being found and blocked from using stolen mobile phones is to alter the IMEI number of the device. With the use of numerous databases, the CEIR will be able to prohibit any cloned mobile devices on the network.
In various telecom circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the North East, C-DOT has been operating the technology’s pilot programme. Using the CEIR system, the Karnataka Police recently found and returned 2,500 missing mobile phones to their owners. With the aid of Apple id, a method for tracking stolen smartphones already exists, but Android-based smartphones have mostly caused problems.
Using stolen cell phones will be futile with the new system in place. The technique created by Sanchar Saathi may also aid in reducing phone smuggling.
Here is how the various services on the Sanchar Saathi platform can be used.
Know Your Mobile (KYM): There are three options to use this service, SMS, KYM and web portal. It provides all the information related to the IMEI number provided.
Lost Phone: It has the option to block a lost or stolen mobile phone, unblock a phone if it is found later, and track the request status. To block a number, information about the lost/stolen phone and the location where it happened, and the phone owner’s personal information has to be provided. Mobile number and device brand are mandatory fields for the information about the phone, while others like IMEI numbers (each SIM in a phone have individual IMEI numbers), second number if there was a second SIM, model name etc can be provided. The owner’s name and identity details are also mandatory.
Mobile connections in your name: After providing the mobile number, the system lists all phone numbers issued to the owner of that number. Only the first 2 and last 4 digits of the numbers are displayed, and three options are given against each number, Not My Number, Not Required, and Required. If a number is not recognised by the user and it was issued without the knowledge of the user, this option can be selected. This will raise a request for disconnection of the number.
The ‘Not Required’ option is for those numbers which were taken by the user in the past but are no longer in use, selecting this will also raise a request for disconnection of the number. For the numbers which were taken by the user and are currently in use, the Required option should be selected before clicking the Report button.
