Lok Sabha Question No. 1978 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-02-11
Subject: Protection of Critical Telecom Infrastructure and Reduction of Telecom Fraud
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Shri P V Midhun Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1978 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11 TH  FEBRUARY, 2026

## PROTECTION OF CRITICAL TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE AND REDUCTION OF TELECOM FRAUD

## 1978.   SHRI P V MIDHUN REDDY:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

(a) the details of the strategy of the Government to protect critical telecom infrastructure and address fraud vectors such as SIM misuse, illegal gateways, call spoofing and related cyber-enabled offences;

(b) whether any targeted or enhanced measures have been deployed in Andhra Pradesh following recent large-scale telecom and financial fraud cases and if so, the details thereof;

- (c) the details of the key performance indicators or metrics used by the Government to assess effectiveness in fraud reduction and user protection; and

(d) the steps taken to strengthen coordination with law enforcement agencies, telecom service providers and financial institutions to prevent recurrence of such frauds and protect citizens from financial losses?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR)

- (a) To  protect  critical  telecom  infrastructure  and  address  fraud  vectors  such  as  SIM  misuse, illegal gateways, call spoofing and related cyber-enabled offences, Government has taken several measures, inter-alia, including the following -
- I. Section 42 of the Telecommunications Act, 2023 prescribes following as an offence:
- i. providing telecommunication services or establishing telecommunication network without authorisation or causing damage to critical telecommunication infrastructure.
- ii. obtaining Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) or other telecommunication identifiers through fraud, cheating or personation.
- iii. possessing  radio  equipment  without  an  authorisation  or  an  exemption  that  can accommodate more than specified number of SIMs.
- iv. tampering with telecommunication identifiers or willfully possessing radio equipment  knowing  that  it  uses  unauthorised  or  tampered  telecommunication identifiers.
- II. The  Telecommunications  (Critical  Telecommunication  Infrastructure)  Rules,  2024 have been notified on 22.11.2024 prescribing standards, security practices, upgradation requirements and procedures for Critical Telecommunication Infrastructure (CTI).

(b) & (c) The measures undertaken by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to prevent the misuse of telecommunications resources and to protect citizens against cyber fraud on pan India basis, including Andhra Pradesh (AP) and their effectiveness is as follows:

- I. DoT has developed Sanchar Saathi, a citizen centric initiative, available as web portal (www.sancharsaathi.gov.in)  and  mobile  App,  which  facilitates  citizens  to  report suspected fraud communications, to know mobile connections in their name, to report lost/  stolen  mobile  handsets,  to  check  genuineness  of  mobile  handset  etc.  The  key performance  indicators of actions  initiated  based  on  Sanchar  Saathi  are  provided  in table below:
- II. DoT and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system to identify and block incoming international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers. The system has resulted in almost 99% reduction in such call attempts.
- III. DoT has developed an indigenous Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics tool ASTR to identify SIMs taken by same person in different names. Based on ASTR, more than 88 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected failing reverification.
- IV. DoT has developed Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) which is a risk-based metric that  categorizes  a  suspicious  mobile  number  according  to  its  probability  of  being associated  with medium, high,  or very  high risk  of  financial  fraud.  FRI  empowers stakeholders - especially banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), and UPI service providers - to prioritize enforcement and take additional customer protection measures  like  enhanced  due  diligence  and  adoption  of  necessary  real-time  response protocols  (alerts,  transaction  delays,  warnings,  transaction  decline  etc.)  for  flagged mobile numbers. Since its launch in May 2025, financial institutions have reported that based on transaction decline and alert/notifications given to the citizens, potential frauds amounting to more than ₹1400 crores have been prevented utilizing FRI.

| Parameter                                                                                                          | All India figures   | AP Licensed Service Area (includes the states of AP and Telangana)   |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Recovery of lost/ stolen mobile handsets                                                                           | 8.46 lakhs          | 1.63 lakhs                                                           |
| Mobile connections disconnected based on reporting by the citizens as 'Not My Number' or 'Not Required'            | 2.28 crores         | 21.5 lakhs                                                           |
| Mobile connections disconnected based on inputs provided by the citizens related to suspected fraud communications | 39.53 lakhs         | 3.46 lakhs                                                           |

(d) DoT has established Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), a secure online platform, for bidirectional information sharing with stakeholders for prevention of misuse of telecom resources in cyber-crimes  and  financial  frauds.  More  than  1200  organizations  have  been  on-boarded  on  DIP including central security agencies, 36 State/UT Police, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C),  Banks,  Unified  Payments  Interface  (UPI)  service  providers,  Payment  System  Operators (PSOs), and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).

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