Sanchar Sathi portal is a citizen-centric initiative by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Government of India. A press release by the Ministry of Communications states the portal has about 9 crore visitors till December 2024 and on average 3 lakh visitors per day land on this portal. 

It aims to empower mobile subscribers, strengthen their security, and increase awareness about citizen-centric initiatives of the Government. 

What does the portal do? 

The services provided by the portal include: 

1. To report suspected fraud communications and Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC);
2. To know the mobile connections issued in their name and report the mobile connections for disconnection which are either not required or not taken by them;
3. To report the stolen/lost mobile handset for blocking and tracing;
4. To check the genuineness of mobile handset while buying a new/old device;
5. To report the incoming international calls received with an Indian telephone number as calling line identification.

Impact

Leveraging feedback from Sanchar Sathi, data from the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), and insights from AI and big data analysis, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has taken significant actions. These include disconnecting 2.67 crore mobile numbers, blacklisting 895 Point of Sales (PoS) and SIM agents, and filing 365 FIRs to address fraudulent activities.

Other means to curb Spam 

This December, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) successfully ensured the industry's full and final compliance with the message traceability guideline to tackle spam from now on. This marks a successful end to all the efforts ushered in by the TRAI  and Telcos to ensure a safe and secure telecom space for users.  

Read more about PE-TM Linkage at: No more Spam from now on as SMS Traceability guidelines by TRAI kick in 

Private telcos have also been pulling through the situation to ensure a safe and secure telecom space for the users. For instance, very recently Airtel released its spam report, 2.5 months after the launch of its AI-powered spam blocking mechanism wherein it claimed to have blocked a staggering 8 billion spam calls, and 0.8 billion SMSes along with identifying around 1 million spammers every day.  

Read more about it at: No more spam calls all day, Airtel’s AI-powered spam-blocking mechanism tramples 8 billion calls since its launch