CRTC presses pause on measures to combat phone porting

The CRTC has asked telecoms to indefinitely refrain from starting or relaunching any measures to block unauthorized SIM swapping or porting, after Quebecor Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. reported issues with a process created by members of the Canadian Wireless Technology Association’s wireless number portability (WNP) council. In a letter dated Aug. 24, the CRTC said Shaw and Quebecor’s Videotron had reported that the “enhanced process” to prevent illegitimate phone porting had led to between 40 and 50 per cent of attempted mobile number ports resulting in failure for some carriers, a rate the two companies said was unacceptable for legitimate number ports. The CRTC’s letter followed one from the CWTA on Aug. 12 saying the process would be rolled back following “unanticipated issues” affecting valid number ports. The methods used for the enhanced process have not been disclosed publicly. The CRTC said it had concerns the roll-out of the enhanced process without “industry coordination on the various steps required” could result in a high failure rate for legitimate number port attempts. “This is not in the best interest of Canadian consumers,” the CRTC letter states. “Blocking fraudulent mobile number porting is important for the protection of Canadian consumers; however, to achieve this objective, it is imperative that the selected process does not result in large-scale frustration of the legitimate customer transfer process.” The CRTC has asked telecoms to comment on when measures to combat unauthorized porting should be reintroduced and whether the CRTC should act as observers during the WNP council’s process, as well as for a range of information about the enhanced process, including the dates it was active, the number of transfer requests and reasons for requests not proceeding. The regulator asked telecoms and the CWTA what they were doing to combat unauthorized SIM swapping and phone porting in January. The WNP council decided upon the enhanced process in February, and set the process in motion in early August. Last month, the House of Commons’ industry committee said it would ask the CRTC to launch a “formal public inquiry” into the practice. Unauthorized phone porting is used by criminals to gain access to an individual’s phone number, transferring the number to a SIM card owned by the criminal. That phone number is often used by the criminal to gain access to an individual’s banking and email accounts.

CRTC presses pause on measures to combat phone porting

Brief | September 8, 2020

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CRTC presses pause on measures to combat phone porting

Brief | September 8, 2020

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