Complete e-KYC of mobile subscribers: Trai asks DoT

KOLKATA: Flagging security concerns, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has urged the government to undertake verification of existing mobile subscribers using the electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) platform within a defined timeframe.

“The paper-based KYC process of customer verification is not robust enough, and the Authority has received several cases from the state police (crime branch), which suggest the existence of hundreds of working SIM cards obtained with fake/forged documents, which poses a real security challenge,” the telecom regulator said in its recommendations to the telecom department (DoT) on Monday.

The e-KYC solution is an instant, secure and green mobile-subscriber verification project where a mobile user’s Aadhaar card and fingerprints are adequate to validate and activate pre-paid and post-paid connections. In August 2016, DoT had cleared the Aadharbased e-KYC authentication rules to issue new mobile connections. However, it “excluded the huge existing mobile subscriber base”.

The regulator has suggested that DoT “works with telcos to evolve a framework to verify existing mobile users through the e-KYC process in a phased manner”.