Govt Gets Strict on SIM Cards

By Kajol Singh

In the backdrop of mobile phones having Indian SIM cards and UAE’s Thuraya satellite phone being used by Pakistani terrorists during Mumbai attack last week, the home ministry on Wednesday asked the department of telecommunication (DoT) to quickly devise a mechanism for a “strict consumer verification” exercise and formulate a comprehensive policy on “monitoring and intercepting” sat phones.

The ministry’s concerns were conveyed to DoT after the issue came up for discussion in a highlevel meeting chaired by home minister P Chidambaram who reviewed all aspects of telecom having security implications.

The issue of use of Chinese mobile phone handsets — which do not have International Mobile Equipment Identities (IMEI) — also came up for discussion. Since it is the IMEI number that mainly helps agencies to trace the handset user, the intelligence agencies had recently pitched for a ban on Chinese handsets.

The minister was, however, informed that DoT, taking such concerns in mind, has already “directed all the access service providers to make provision of Equipment Identity Registry (EIR) so that calls without IMEI or Electronic Serial Number (ESN) or those with IMEI or ESN with all zeros are not processed, and rejected”.

Besides senior home ministry and DoT officials, the meeting was also attended by senior officers of IB, RAW and the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO). The NTRO keeps track of technological aspects of intelligence in coordination with other agencies.

Sources in the ministry said that DoT had proposed to set up a National Surveillance Grid to create a centralised communication monitoring agency. The Grid would help remove multiplicity of authorities in telecom/internet/Voice Over Internet Protocol monitoring exercises as currently it is being done by different agencies, they added.

At present, interception of sat phones is a big problem in India as none of the international operators have a hub here. Since these phones — provided by operators like UAE’s Thuraya and a consortium led by Inmarsat — do not need interconnectivity with the network of any country’s domestic network, they can be used anywhere in the world without any hitch.

An official said that sat phones could be intercepted only with the help of the country where it is licensed, which is time-consuming and often ineffective. The problems of interception and the absence of hubs come because India does not provide licences for operating satellite phones on a commercial basis, he added.

After having discussed such issues, the ministry asked DoT to come out with a solution within a month so that the government could formulate a comprehensive policy on sat phone monitoring and interception.

As far as safety mechanism of SIM cards is concerned, the ministry suggested that DoT consider a system of “guarantor” for getting a new connection. The home ministry also suggested that DoT come out with a guideline, which makes it mandatory for SIM card vendors to take instant photographs of new customers using web cameras and to pass them on to the service provider with the reference number.

It was earlier proposed that the consumers can carry reference numbers of two existing mobile phone customers as “guarantors” for getting new SIM cards.