Mobile phone users can soon be able to convert from prepaid to postpaid by an OTP authentication. There would be no need to change SIM cards. Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) sent the proposal to the Department of Telecom (DoT). Department of Telecom has requested telecom operators to conduct proof of concept (PoC) tests on it.
DoT ADG Suresh Kumar said in the note issued on May 21, “The PoC for conversion from prepaid to postpaid and vice versa may be carried out by the telecom service providers as per the procedure. The decision regarding implementation of the procedure would take place after the assessment of the outcome of the PoC”.
On April 9, 2020, the COAI, which includes telecom companies did request this approval from the DoT to enable mobile users to move from prepaid to postpaid and vice versa without having to undergo a new KYC process. The whole process would instead depend on OTP-based authentication.
The DoT note states that contactless services should be there to encourage user convenience and convenience of managing a business. It also mentioned that OTP-based authentication has become an acceptable standard in all fields in the past years. And also that several citizen-centric services are now provided with OTP authentication.
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How to Switch From Prepaid to Postpaid?
- A mobile customer who wishes to switch from prepaid to postpaid service or vice versa must contact their service provider via SMS, IVRS, website, or official app.
- Following the delivery of the request, a message confirming the conversion request would be sent to the user, along with a unique transaction ID as well as a 10-minute OTP.
- After the OTP is verified, the user will be notified via text messaging or IVRS of the time and date the conversion will take place.
- A text message would be delivered to the user after the conversion procedure has been completed. As per the DoT, any service interruptions during the conversion phase should not last longer than 30 minutes.
In addition, a user could only re-convert 90 days following the previous conversion. Prepaid services are primarily used by over 90% of telecom subscribers in the nation.
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