Kenya’s telecoms regulator wants to make it harder for private messages and account alerts to land on a stranger’s phone. The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) plans to set up a central database of recycled phone numbers to help banks, fintech firms and other service providers avoid sending messages to unintended recipients after mobile lines change ownership.
The concern is that a phone number often outlives the person who first used it. A mobile number can remain attached to a bank account, a payment service or an online profile long after its original owner stops using it. The proposal follows worries about the security and privacy risks of recycling dormant lines, which have become a key gateway to mobile banking, online accounts and identity verification through one-time passwords (OTPs). A recycled number could leave banks, Saccos and fintech providers sending account alerts or password reset messages to a new subscriber rather than the original customer.
The database would work as a lookup. It will list recently recycled numbers so that third parties, such as bulk SMS platforms, can verify a number’s status before sending subscription related messages. To keep it current, telcos such as Safaricom and Airtel Kenya would have to submit lists of deactivated and recycled numbers to the system every three months, allowing businesses to update their own records. In its response to public comments, the CA said the database will contain a list of numbers recycled within a given period. The model is not unique to Kenya. It mirrors a system in the United States, where the Federal Communications Commission maintains a Reassigned Numbers Database that lets callers check whether a number has been reassigned since a specified date.
The database sits inside a wider set of rules on inactive lines. The CA’s proposals would give subscribers more control by extending by three months the window telcos take to recycle dormant numbers.
Questions remain about how the system will run. Kenya’s system would need clear rules on access, data accuracy and how providers should act when a number is flagged as recycled. Until those details are published, customers can still reduce their own exposure by keeping the numbers linked to their bank and mobile money accounts up to date.
