TRAI Imposes 7-Day Porting Delay for Swapped SIM Cards To Avoid Fraud

The telecom regulatory authority has announced that if a SIM card undergoes swapping or replacement, the associated mobile number cannot be ported to another telecom operator for seven days. This decision aims to prevent fraudulent practices involving the porting of mobile numbers through unauthorized SIM swaps or replacements.

As part of the amendment to the mobile number portability regulations, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has introduced additional conditions for porting out. According to Trai, the amendment includes a new criterion for rejecting requests for unique porting codes (UPCs). Specifically, UPCs will not be allocated if the request is made within seven days of a SIM swap or replacement of the mobile number.The new regulations will come into effect from July 1, 2024.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had written to Trai in September 2022 about criminals/fraudsters porting out mobile connections by way of fraudulent SIM swaps and replacement. To curb it, the regulator was asked to incorporate additional conditions in the MNP regulators.

This is the ninth amendment in the MNP regulations since 2009, when the MNP service was first introduced. MNP allows mobile customers to change telecom operators while retaining the number.