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The Central government has announced that it has asked mobile phone manufacturers and importers to ensure that the ‘Sanchar Saathi’ mobile application is pre-installed on all new mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India.
Also Read- What Is Sanchar Saathi? Govt Makes It Mandatory On All New Smartphones: Here’s What App Does
What Is The Reason Behind Centre’s Order?
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The decision has been taken with the aim of safeguarding the citizens from buying non-genuine items. It is expected to enable easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and increase the effectiveness of the ‘Sanchar Saathi’ initiative.
DoT is undertaking the ‘Sanchar Saathi’ initiative for curbing the misuse of telecom resources for cyber fraud. With this move, the Centre is also aiming to strengthen telecom cybersecurity.
The companies have to complete the implementation in 90 days and submit a report in 120 days.
DoT’s Guidelines For Mobile Manufacturers And Importers
According to the guidelines, issued on November 28, mobile manufacturers and importers have to ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted.
Additionally, all such devices that have already been manufactured and are in sales channels in India, the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets shall endeavour to push the app through software updates.
What Will ‘Sanchar Saathi’ App Do?
The department has developed the ‘Sanchar Saathi’ portal and app, which enables citizens to check the genuineness of a mobile handset through the IMEI number, along with other facilities like reporting suspected fraudulent communications, lost or stolen mobile handsets, checking mobile connections in their name, and trusted contact details of banks and financial institutions.
In a separate statement, the DoT said that it has observed that some of the app-based communication services that are utilising Indian mobile numbers for identification of their customers or users or for provisioning or delivery of services, allow users to consume their services without the availability of the underlying Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) within the device in which the app-based services are running. This feature is being misused for cyberfraud, especially from operating outside the country.
(with IANS inputs)
