Back in March this year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced a new rule for SIM porting as per which if a user gets a new SIM card because their old one is lost, damaged, or stolen, they can’t switch to a new telecom operator for seven days.
Well starting today, that is 1st July 2024, this new SIM porting rule comes into effect. This new rule was introduced to prevent fraudulent SIM replacements in India as there have been instances of misuse of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and SIM replacement leading to increased fraud risks.
This new rule comes into effect today following the ninth amendment of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) regulations, introduced in 2009. As per the regulations, telecom providers will now be prohibited from issuing a unique porting code (UPC) to users in the initial seven days following the replacement or swap of the SIM. For this, a new criteria for rejection of UPC issuance has been introduced. To issue a UNP, mobile service providers must check for the following conditions-
- The mobile number has been ported earlier, If so, a period of 90 days has not elapsed since the last date of porting.
- Another porting request from the same mobile number is in process.
- A Unique Porting Code (UPC) has already been issued to the mobile number and hasn’t expired
As per TRAI, if any of the aforementioned conditions are valid, the network provider will be forbidden from generating a UPC and will have to inform the subscriber of the reason via an SMS.
