NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has disconnected over 56.02 lakh suspected mobile connections that failed to re-verify.
According to the DoT’s monthly report, as of December 2023, 66.98 lakh such mobile connections were detected by DoT’s Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition powered solution - ASTR, out of which 56.02 lakh were disconnected. It also blacklisted 70,313 Point of Sale (PoS)’s selling SIMs on fake/forged documents, and 365 FIRs were registered across the country.
“AI-based facial recognition analysis has been carried out on 134 crore mobile connections to detect mobile connections obtained on fake/forged documents. By December 2023, 66.98 lakh such mobile connections have been detected, of which 56.02 lakh suspected connections have been disconnected for failing re-verification,” said DoT. It also disengaged 2.21 lakh social media profiles like WhatsApp, and 7.82 lakh bank/wallet accounts linked to disconnected mobile connections obtained on fake/forged documents were frozen.
The ASTR is a system that uses subscriber images provided by telecom service providers (TSPs) to detect duplication of SIM card registrations under different names, guardian names, dates of birth, or any other KYC parameter.
It mentioned that its Sanchar Saathi portal has been visited by 3.67 crore citizens by December 2023.