Kindly share your alternate or secondary number to continue. Whether you opt for a new mobile number, perform a KYC activity, avail a banking service, or try to raise a customer complaint, the very next question you are asked is to share your alternate number. This has become so common that both people and service providers presume that you must have a second/alternate number; otherwise, you practically don’t exist.
If you are reading this, you must have experienced at least once the nuisance of mandatory requirement of an alternate number. Let’s take the example of availing a mobile number itself. The store personnel or SIM vendor can’t even proceed with KYC without an OTP from this so-called alternate number. It seems that even the application software ecosystem is designed in such a way that an alternate number is mandatory—so much so that vendors claim they cannot proceed without it. In fact, in our experience, when we said we didn’t have a mobile number, they asked for any number—be it from family or friends—just to proceed with the application.
Ecosystem Mandates Use of Mobile Service
This indicates that an ecosystem has been built that mandates the use of an alternate number. Having a mobile number itself is not mandatory for customers to avail services, yet there are systems that enforce the requirement of a secondary or alternate number.
What If You Don’t Have an Alternate Number?
Now, consider the case of a person who does not have an existing mobile number and is a first-time mobile user. Can’t they even avail a service without relying on an OTP from friends or family? It appears that this is the case. We have even encountered instances where SIM vendors entered their numbers to complete the SIM application process for the OTP when the customer did not have a mobile number available. Even if we ignore the entry of a random number in the application, we have no way of knowing what SMS or details the operator sends to the so-called secondary/alternate number entered by the vendor.
Mandatory Field in Application Process
If a mandatory alternate number is enough for KYC, then what is the point of actual KYC, verification, and authentication? It is unclear whether this mandatory alternate number is an attempt to map mobile numbers to customers or simply to increase SIM registrations, but it has now become a standard practice—without an alternate number, you cannot proceed with certain services.
In banking or any customer service, the alternate number has become the norm. One common justification they give is that if a customer is not reachable, the service provider can try the alternate number. From our experience, Indian telco KYC applications, customer support and other applications are linked to an alternate number. Try getting a mobile number, and you will notice how this works.
For example, India’s Vodafone Idea even sends SMS communications to users, saying, “Update and verify your alternate number; it will be mandatory for ID verification in SIM-related issues.”
Enforced to Have Alternate Mobile Number
As this SMS suggests, if an alternate number is mandatory, then a user is either forced to have an alternate mobile number or to use the number of a friend or family member. Strangely, the ecosystem seems to assume that no individual exists without a mobile number.
IT Systems Designed Mandating Mobile Number
It is also alarming that even basic services are now linked to a mobile number, as though there is a rule that services must be provided only to those with one. Asking for a mobile number to facilitate services for convenience is one thing, but mandating it as a requirement to avail any service is another. Unfortunately, IT systems are also designed in the same manner, as if this were intentional. In the end, it is the consumer who faces the trouble.
There is a difference between “mandatory” and “voluntary.” Although the term “voluntary” is often used, a dependency is created that effectively makes it mandatory. For instance, if Service A is voluntary but required to avail Service B, then Service A is indirectly made mandatory.
The concept of a mobile number—whether primary or secondary—is being treated similarly. However, with recent tariff revisions, we believe customers will move toward a single SIM or restrict themselves to using only one. While the digital IT ecosystem is currently in a chaotic state due to such implementations, we believe that going forward, the concept of a secondary SIM will decline and gradually shift toward consolidation.
If this article saved you time or helped you decide better, consider supporting our work.
Support Telecomtalk
