Bharti Airtel Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Vittal has proposed the formation of an industry-wide platform to combat the growing threat of cyber fraud, calling on peers Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to join hands in a Joint Telecom Fraud Initiative.
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Airtel urges Industry Collaboration
In a letter dated May 14, reviewed by Business Standard, Vittal urged India's telecom operators to work collaboratively to curb the surge in cybercrime, particularly those involving malicious uniform resource locator (URL) links that deceive users into revealing sensitive financial information or making fraudulent payments.
The move comes amid heightened government scrutiny and new cybersecurity compliance norms being rolled out in response to escalating geopolitical tensions, particularly with Pakistan. According to data from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, India recorded over 1.7 million cybercrime complaints in the first nine months of 2024, resulting in financial losses exceeding Rs 11,000 crore.
According to the report, Vittal noted that fraudulent URLs are responsible for nearly half of all financial losses from cybercrime, while phishing calls, messages, and sophisticated digital frauds make up the rest.
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Vision for Unified Telecom Security Framework
"Given this growing threat, we believe it is crucial for the industry to come together to respond in a unified manner. In this spirit, we propose the creation of a Joint Telecom Fraud Initiative, comprising all telecom service providers, to work together to prevent, detect, and mitigate potential fraud and scam flowing through our networks," Vittal stated in the letter, according to the report.
Vittal's letter calls for real-time intelligence sharing among telecom firms to enable rapid identification and blocking of suspicious numbers, devices, and behavioural patterns. "The coordination between networks of the carriers to block fraudulent numbers and SIMs will ensure that fraudsters cannot exploit the lack of synchronisation between networks," he reportedly wrote.
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Standardisation and Real-Time Intelligence Sharing
The proposal also includes standardising fraud detection policies, protocols, technology frameworks, and response mechanisms across the telecom industry. Vittal argued that this would not only improve operational efficiency but also strengthen coordination with law enforcement and regulatory agencies such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
"Additionally, such an initiative would be cost-effective for stakeholders as shared tools, analytics platforms, and threat intelligence will help reduce duplicate efforts and operational costs," Vittal wrote, as per the report.
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Airtel's Previous Efforts in Combating Digital Fraud
Bharti Airtel has been vocal in the past about the need for collective industry action on digital fraud. Last year, the company urged operators to share corporate connection data to curb unsolicited commercial communications. It also launched an AI-based spam detection tool, which has flagged over 27.5 billion calls as spam and expanded to block malicious links across messaging platforms and browsers.
The proposed initiative, if accepted, would mark a significant step toward unified industry action against cybercrime in India's fast-evolving digital landscape.
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