Reports of calls from SIMs after MNP stir concern

KOLKATA: The telecom department has detected numerous instances across the country where people are making calls on their officially deactivated SIMs even after availing of mobile number portability (MNP), raising concerns of abuse and possible security risks. The department’s vigilance wing has found that possible software glitches at the operator’s end have enabled customers on both prepaid and postpaid platforms to make outgoing calls from their old SIMs.

It has also asked all telecom firms to ensure that mobile phone SIMs are deactivated as soon as a customer ports out. A director in the telecom department’s legal wing confirmed this and said it was “illegal and a breach of licence conditions” . Under present licence conditions , once somebody ports out, there is a twohour window for deactivating the old SIM and re-activating the new one on the network he migrates to.

“But if the old SIM remains active, it opens up possibilities for serious abuse at the user end and monitoring challenges since a single number would be active on two mobile networks,” the official quoted above added. “The potential challenges of tracing calls made from the old SIM after a number migrates to a new mobile network were discussed at a recent meeting in the telecom department. Operators have promised to fix all software glitches that may have triggered such aberrations,” said a senior executive mobile phone company who attended the meet.

“If a person, whose mobile number is being tapped, happens to port out to a new network and discovers that his old SIM works, he can make calls using the old SIM and skirt surveillance. Under the present phone tapping system , once porting happens, a mobile number under surveillance will be under observation only on the new network,” said A Ghosh, director general in DoT’s vigilance wing.