OTT Apps, SIM Binding & National Security

New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI) COAI on Wednesday demanded that all OTT communication apps be mandated to bind with verified mobile SIMs at all times, as the telecom industry body emphasised that doing so would help prevent cyber fraud and strengthen national security.

Such a move would ensure consumer trust, accountability, traceability and alignment with existing regulatory frameworks, said the industry association of telecom operators that has repeatedly, in the past, called for bringing OTT communication services (like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal) under a regulatory framework.

"COAI believes that in the light of escalating digital scams and sovereign security challenges, all OTT communication apps should be mandated to bind with the verified mobile SIMs at all times, to ensure cyber fraud prevention and to strengthen national security," COAI said.

India's mobile operators are proactively implementing CNAP or caller name presentation and have implemented suspected spam protection measures on voice and SMS, as well as rule-based checks.

COAI rued that fraudsters are "increasingly adapting" by shifting to OTT messaging platforms that are installed/used independent of SIM verification and are immune to telecom-level controls.

"Presently, the binding process between a subscriber's app-based communication services and their mobile SIM card occurs only once during the initial installation and verification phase, after which the application continues to function independently on the device even if the SIM card is later removed, replaced or deactivated," SP Kochhar, Director General of COAI said.

COAI demanded that the OTT communication apps implement persistent SIM-binding that remains active beyond initial installation. This would ensure that the communication service cannot operate without the authenticated SIM physically inserted in the device, maintaining critical traceability between the user, the number and the device.

Citing why this would be critical, COAI said today if the original SIM card is removed from the device and the device with the OTT Communication App is used for a criminal activity from any geographic location, since no SIM is present during the crime, there is no verifiable link, such as call records, location data or carrier logs, to prove which device was used or where the activity occurred.

This proves to be a major impediment towards preventing the issues of spam and cyber frauds and could pose a major threat to national security as well, COAI said.

Further, it said, binding communication apps with mobile SIMs would not only help reduce the occurrence of spam and fraud communications significantly over these applications, but also help mitigate financial frauds by acting as a deterrent against misuse of app-based communication platforms.

This would bring relief to both the telecom service providers and the OTT communication platforms.

"It will also help establish a regulatory level-playing-field by ensuring that laws and compliance frameworks governing user identification, geographic accountability and lawful interception protocols apply equally to app-based communication services and telecom service providers," as per COAI.