The government should allow telecom companies to provide a mobile number validation (MNV) service through mutual agreements to prevent the misuse of telecom resources for cyber fraud, Reliance Jio says in its comments on the draft National Telecom Policy, 2025. MediaNama gained access to these comments through an RTI request it had filed with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
The government had introduced the MNV service under its draft amendment to the Telecom Cybersecurity Rules, 2024. This amendment proposes that companies that use telecom identifiers to validate customers and deliver their services can either of their own volition, or based on government direction, use the MNV service to validate their users.
The rules specify a fee for this service as well, splitting it between the government and the telecom service providers whose database the MNV platform will rely on for customer validation. To explain, the service costs between Rs 1.5 and Rs 3.
Jio’s recommendation appears to suggest that telecom companies should have more autonomy in running the service instead of government involvement. And it seems to want to offer the service directly through commercial agreements.
[Note: The government sent across submissions from Jio, Vodafone Idea (Vi), and Tata Communications. We did not receive Airtel and BSNL’s submissions on the policy.]Key demands from telecos’ submissions on the policy:
Spam and fraud prevention enhancement:
Vi argues that the government should foster global leadership in combating cross-border spam, fraud, and phishing. It should also put in place adequate and effective cross-sectoral regulatory frameworks for detecting and preventing spam. The company emphasises that the government could leverage India’s presence in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to address issues like calling line identification (CLI) spoofing.
Meanwhile, Jio wants the responsibility for curbing spam to be adequately distributed across all players in the ecosystem. It urges the government to create a framework for controlling spam at source, duly recognising telcos’ role as intermediaries.
Policy framework for OTTs:
In what comes as yet another repetition of the demand for over-the-top (OTT) communication service regulation, both Vi and Jio have made demands for spam responsibilities on OTT players. Jio argues for equitable regulatory costs for similar services. As part of the strategic objectives for the policy, Jio suggests that by 2030, the government should “develop a policy framework for over-the-top communication services towards fiscal contributions and security conditions establishing ‘same service same rules’ regime”.
It also wants graded and proportional responsibilities for all digital platforms (including OTTs) to tackle spam and fraud.
A unique telecom ID:
The government should create a unique telecom ID, Vi suggested, as part of the ease…
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