DoT disconnects 17 million fraudulent mobile connections so far – Industry News

The department of telecommunications (DoT) has disconnected over 17 million fraudulent mobile connections so far and blocked near 190,000 handsets involved in cyber crime, according to data shared by the government.

The same has been done on the basis of complaints DoT received on the Sanchar Saathi portal and inputs received from key stakeholders such as ministry of home affairs, banks, etc. According to the DoT data, it has analysed 1.34 billion mobile connections till date based on the complaints. 

Sanchar Saathi portal is a citizen-centric service by DoT to find mobile connections issued in their name, disconnect the connections not in their name, block and trace stolen/lost mobile phones and check genuineness of devices while buying a new/old mobile phone. 

Lately, the government also launched Chakshu portal to report the suspected or unsolicited communications received through call, SMS or WhatsApp. Till date, DoT has recieved 28,412 complaints and flagged 10,834 connections for re-verification as well as disconnected 8,272 connections for failing re-verification, as per the data.

“The digital economy will become roughly about $1.5 trillion in India by 2025-26. It will be a good 15% of the GDP. I cannot think that it can happen in any other way, except when we have a very robust and secure telecom network system,” said telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal at a DoT event on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

Mittal said, DoT is working in tandem with different departments to curb the menace of pesky calls and spam messages.

Besides the issue on fradulent calls, the government in a separate communication said the country has 99% coverage footprint in 4G with over 600,000 villages covered in 4G. Total number of 5G base transceiver stations (BTS) was at 442,000.