Telecom Commission Letter addressed to Mr. Eric Smith (Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association)
Ottawa, 15 January 2020
Our reference: 8665-C12-202000280
BY EMAIL
Mr. Eric Smith
Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association
80 Elgin Street, Suite 300
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6R2
esmith@cwta.ca
RE: Unauthorized Mobile Telephone Number Porting in Canada
Dear Mr. Smith:
The Commission has become aware that certain Canadian mobile customers have been subject to fraudulent activity involving unauthorized porting of their mobile phone numbers.
Given the seriousness of this issue and the negative impact on Canadians, Commission staff requests that the CWTA provide a written update on the Canadian mobile industry’s plans to implement effective solutions to this problem. This update should include:
- A description of how unauthorized ports are accomplished
- Available data from the CWTA and its members indicative of the prevalence of unauthorized ports and SIM swapping in Canada, such as the number of instances of each, by wireless carrier, over the last 6 months
- A description of the information that wireless carriers currently obtain from customers as part of the wireless to wireless number porting process, and how this information is used or verified before a port is permitted
- The information that is exchanged between wireless carriers when a customer is changing wireless carrier
- A description of the customer and technical information which gets modified in carriers’ databases as a result of a port
- A detailed description of the measures that the Canadian mobile industry is taking or contemplating to take to prevent unauthorized ports and SIM swapping, including key milestones and timelines
- An indication of the CWTA’s plan to engage non-members in any described process improvements and to educate the public as appropriate
This update is requested to be filed with Commission staff by 14 February 2020.
Sincerely,
Original signed by
Michel Murray
Director, Dispute Resolution & Regulatory Implementation
Telecommunications Sector
c.c.: CRTC registered Wireless Carriers
Ursula Grant ugrant@cwta.ca
Bill Mason bill.mason@crtc.gc.ca
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