The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on May 16 said it has identified and disconnected around 30,000 non-bonafide mobile connections issued by Telecom Service Providers (TSP) in Mumbai.
It looked at subscriber base of TSPs’ Mumbai licensed service areas (LSA) and identified 62 groups where similar photos were found under different names. With threshold of 50 or more subscribers in a group, there were a total of 8,247 subscribers identified in these 62 groups.
“There appears to be connivance of point of sale (PoS) i.e. SIM sellers, especially those PoS whose contribution of fake SIMs in a group is abnormally high, in issuing suspected fake SIMs,” a DoT release noted. It added that in one of the cases, 684 numbers were issued against one face.
A total of six FIRs have been lodged so far — one each with the Malabar Hill police station, VP Marg police station, DB Marg Police station, DN Nagar Police station, Sahar Police station, and Bangur Nagar Police station.
Technology to the rescue
The DoT used its indigenous Next Gen Platform (using Super Computer) ASTR – AI and facial recognition powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber VeRification for this work.
The system compares subscriber photos and subscriber database provided by TSPs and the output is generated in groups of similar photos of subscriber with different names.
HS Jakhar, Additional DG, Telecom said the platform has been “designed and implemented by DoT with a vision to analyse, identify and weed out fake/forged, non bonafide mobile connections for curbing the menace of cybercrimes”.
“These steps will help to prevent the usage of fake/forged, non-bonafide mobile connections for various illegal activities including cybercrimes in Mumbai,” the release added.