The Government of India has now made the “Sanchar Sathi App” mandatory for every mobile handset used in the country. The Department of Telecommunications has taken this decision to protect citizens from purchasing counterfeit handsets, to facilitate easier reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and to enhance the effectiveness of the Sanchar Sathi initiative.
Phone manufacturers have been asked to ensure that the Sanchar Saathi mobile application is pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India.
The communications ministry said in a statement on Monday evening that the Sanchar Saathi application should be pre-installed in the mobile handset, should be easily visible and accessible to the end user at the time of first use or device setup, and its functionality should not be disabled or restricted.
For all such devices that have already been manufactured and are in sales channels in India, manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets will make efforts to push the app through software updates.
The instructions direct to complete the implementation within 90 days and submit the report within 120 days.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is launching Sanchar Saathi initiative to prevent misuse of telecom resources for cyber fraud and ensure telecom cyber security.
The Department of Telecommunications has developed the Sanchar Sathi portal and app, which enables citizens to check the genuineness of a mobile handset through the IMEI number, and also provides other facilities, such as reporting suspected fraudulent communications, reporting lost/stolen mobile handsets, checking mobile connections in their name, and reliable contact details of banks/financial institutions.
The Telecom Cyber Security (TCS) Rules empower the Central Government to issue directions to manufacturers of telecommunication equipment having International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers to provide assistance as required in respect of compromised telecom equipment or IMEI numbers.
The rules also mandate that such manufacturers or importers will ensure compliance with the instructions issued by the Central Government for the purpose of giving effect to the rules.
“Mobile handsets with duplicate or spoofed IMEIs pose a serious threat to telecom cyber security. Spurious/tampered IMEIs in telecom networks lead to a situation where the same IMEI is functional in different devices at different locations at the same time and it is challenging to take action against such IMEIs. There is a huge market for second-hand mobile devices in India,” the communications ministry said.
The ministry said cases have also been observed where stolen or blacklisted devices are being resold. Due to this the buyer gets involved in crime and suffers financial loss.
Blocked/blacklisted IMEI can be checked using Sanchar Saathi app. Sanchar Saathi mobile app can be downloaded to avail various services on both Android and iOS devices.
