The new phone number has been harassed, how can we return the second number "innocent"
In front of a large number of users, mobile phone numbers are a scarce resource.
"Secondary number allocation" can recycle code number resources and is a necessary means to effectively activate idle communication resources, but it also brings some trouble to users.
Does your phone number often receive calls from strangers?
Does it show that the phone number you just bought is already occupied when you register the App?
If there is such a situation, then you may have encountered the operator's "secondary allocation".
Your phone number may be a second-hand item.
The so-called "secondary number allocation" means that after an old user stops or abandons the mobile phone number, the number is taken back by the operator and placed on the market again after a period of time for new users to choose.
As of the end of September, the number of mobile phone users of my country's three major operators has reached 1.6 billion.
In front of a large number of users, mobile phone numbers are a scarce resource.
"Secondary number allocation" can recycle code resources and is a necessary means to effectively revitalize idle communication resources. This is also a common practice internationally.
New phone number is difficult to "old account"
An industry insider told a reporter from the Science and Technology Daily: “Take China Mobile as an example. After 120 days of arrears or abandoning the mobile phone number, the number will be automatically cancelled. The communications operator will leave the number idle for 6 months before putting it back into its own sales. In the system, consumers are allowed to buy again on the market."
The reporter consulted the official customer service of China Mobile and learned that "The number you dialed is an empty number" is an automatic prompt when the number is idle.
In addition, it is more difficult to distinguish between a new number and a reclaimed number. Only by asking the communication operator to check whether the number has historical records of payment or handling of business can be distinguished.
Xiaohui (pseudonym) is one of the hundreds of millions of people who witnessed the operator's "second time allocation".
A few years ago, she came to Beijing from a small town in the south to study for graduate school. At the beginning of the school year, she saw a communications operator enter colleges and universities to do activities, so she bought a real-name mobile card with a campus package.
"Shortly after buying a mobile phone card, a number of strangers from other places called me and asked if I was so and so, and I realized that this should be a number used by others. My way of handling it is to black out and hang up if I hear something wrong. ."she says.
She also complained to reporters that this mobile phone number has been bound to various apps by the original account owner, including mainstream apps such as WeChat and JD. Therefore, she spent a lot of time and energy on verifying multiple times before connecting her WeChat and JD. The account is re-bound to the new second-hand number.
How to deal with the second number encounter
I believe that there are many people who have the same experience as Xiaohui.
So what should we do if we buy a second-hand mobile phone number without knowing it?
"Generally, it is enough to explain to the caller that you are not the original number owner. If there are many harassing calls, you can complain to the operator and request a change of number." The aforementioned industry insider said.
Li Hai, an associate researcher at the School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, admitted in an interview with a reporter from the Science and Technology Daily: "It is technically impossible to completely eradicate phone calls from relatives and friends of old users. Because operators do not know who their friends are, including Do new and old users have mutual friends."
Xiaohui revealed that within six months of using this number, she frequently received calls to find the original owner, and insisted on using it for several years. By hanging up the phone, blocking the call, and explaining to the other party, the situation is now much better.
But as far as she knows, some people will voluntarily give up harassing calls or dunning calls due to their annoyance, and go to the business hall to buy a new number.
If harassing calls cannot be eliminated, can the operator clear all the data information bound to the original account owner before assigning the number?
The answer is also no.
"The company that the App belongs to is not the same company as the communications operator, how can it be cleared?" said the aforementioned industry insider.
Telecom expert Xiang Ligang also said that in theory, in addition to the original phone owner, other people such as communications operators, App companies, and new account owners have no right to unbind App accounts.
Not only operators, but individuals may also perform "secondary allocation".
Xiang Ligang explained that when the real-name mobile phone number was not yet registered, some people tried to buy a mobile phone card from a hawker at a low price. They found that the mobile phone card had already been bound to the ID of a stranger, but they didn't pay enough attention to it.
Once the mobile phone is stolen, it is easy to fall into an embarrassing situation where you cannot prove that you are the holder of the card number, and even reporting the loss of the mobile phone card is a problem.
When encountering this kind of personal "second number allocation", Xiang Ligang strongly recommends that you go to the offline business hall as soon as possible and try to bind the number with your ID card or change the number as much as possible, otherwise there will be endless troubles.
"Second time allocation" is only to make up for the resource gap
Since the "secondary number allocation" has brought so many problems to new users, is it feasible to replace the "secondary number allocation" with the continuous release of new numbers?
"Constrained by the huge population base and limited number resources, the reality of continuously releasing new numbers is not strong." The aforementioned industry insider explained that the mobile phone number has a total of 11 digits. According to the numbering rules, the first 3 digits refer to different operators.
"The last 8 digits of a mobile phone number are only 100 million numbers. Many people use 2-3 numbers. On average, China's 1.2 to 1.5 billion numbers can basically meet the needs of use. Therefore, it is unrealistic not to recycle abandoned numbers. Because the number gap will expand indefinitely over time, and the shortage will be relatively less after recycling."
So can increasing the number of digits in mobile phone numbers solve the problem of shortage of number resources?
In Xiang Ligang's view, if the mobile phone number is upgraded from 11 digits to 12 digits, the number may be able to meet the huge market demand. In the past, the phone number has gradually increased from 4 digits to 6 digits, 7 digits and 8 digits. of.
However, the cost of upgrading the number of numbers obviously exceeds the benefit.
"As a result, the entire management system of the operator will have to be upgraded, at a cost of several billion yuan or even tens of billions. Correspondingly, the entire social system such as the banking system must be upgraded, and the cost will expand to 100 billion yuan."
There is still a long way to solve the second problem
Faced with the troubles caused by "secondary number allocation" to consumers, many industry experts said that consumers, as the main body enjoying communication services, have the right to know. When they handle the number access agreement, the operator should clearly inform whether the number is It is the second number.
On the other hand, there is still a lot of work to be done on how to improve the service system for the secondary account, such as comprehensively removing the information and traces of old users, and unbinding various bundled accounts with related third parties.
In response to the problem of the original account owner binding the App and then abandoning the number, Li Hai explained that the initial mobile communication system design did not take into account the issue of user number binding to third-party services, and there is currently no effective mechanism to manage the relationship between the two. Binding relationship.
The establishment of this mechanism is obviously beyond the scope of technology, but belongs to the scope of social governance.
Xiang Ligang said: "Theoretically, consumers should abandon the number after canceling the number, go to the communication operator's offline business hall, and untie the bank card, Alipay, WeChat and other accounts registered with the mobile phone number. , But consumers usually throw away their mobile phone cards directly; even some people maliciously abandon their numbers after registering for micro loans with their mobile numbers. This situation should actually be punished. However, operators have no way to supervise such situations He suggested that the most feasible way is for communication operators to join the government, industry associations, Internet companies or other non-profit organizations to establish a number query system to achieve data interconnection and integration, so that consumers can check whether the number is still bound when purchasing. For other applications, decide whether to purchase or select a number.
At present, industry authorities and communications companies have begun to establish a data exchange platform to coordinate information exchange and account management between operators and Internet companies.
For example, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has guided the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology to establish a code number service platform, China Mobile has launched a "second number query service" system, and some commercial organizations have established a second number payment unbinding platform.
Li Hai believes that "secondary number allocation" is still an important means to deal with the shortage of number resources.
To completely solve the problem of the secondary number, it is necessary to modify the current technical standards and change the rules for the use of numbers. "The change in the rules for the use of numbers has a technical basis." He said that the existing mobile communication networks are basically based on IMS (IP Multimedia System) architecture. The IMS standard allows identification of similar email addresses to replace user numbers, so that there is no limit to the number of numbers.
However, implementing this method requires the joint efforts of operators and equipment manufacturers.
"I believe that with the continuous development of technology, this problem will be gradually solved. Just as we may only have a friend's WeChat ID, but no mobile phone number." Li Hai is full of confidence.