The government announced that new regulations aimed at preventing fraudulent SIM swaps or replacements by cyber criminals will go into effect next Monday. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Ninth Amendment) Regulations in March 2024, and these regulations will become enforceable on July 1. 

Under the new regulation, the waiting period for porting mobile numbers after SIM swap has been reduced from 10 to 7 days.

"These amendment regulations are aimed at curbing the porting of mobile numbers by way of fraudulent SIM swap/replacement by unscrupulous elements," the TRAI said.

New regulation has been added to reject requests for a Unique Porting Code (UPC). If a request for UPC is made within seven days of a SIM swap/replacement, it will be denied. This rule is to prevent fraudulent SIM-swapping practices that have caused financial harm to users recently.