Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the telecom regulator, is set to formulate a directive for SIM deactivation process after a huge number of subscribers found their biometric details were forged to re-register numbers that they are not in possession.
Of the 13.26 crore active connections in Bangladesh, 11.6 crore were re-registered. Of them, 40-50 lakh connections were done with forged biometric detail, said a number of executives of mobile phone operators.
Now, the individuals whose details were falsely used for the re-registration process need to deactivate those connections, they said, adding: “It will be challenging for the carriers to reach all the affected customers physically.”
Besides, to deactivate numbers subscribers have to visit the operators’ customer care centres, but not all operators have physical presence in rural areas.
Acknowledging this as a serious problem, a high official of BTRC said, they are consulting the matter with experts to find a solution in this regard.
About the issue, State Minister for telecommunications Tarana Halim said after formulating the guideline they will go for tough actions to find out the fake re-registered numbers.
Khondoker Naimul Hasan, an executive of Aziz and Company in the capital, found eight SIMs have been registered under his name with Robi and three more with Airtel.
He himself just registered one SIM each with the two operators. “I am confused and am feeling vulnerable. I don’t know the numbers that are registered under my name,” said Naimul.
Shamsudoha Mahmud, a student of Government Titumir College in the capital, said he had registered two Airtel numbers, but on July 2 he got a text message from the operator saying he has three SIMs under his name.
After passed three months he did get any solution from respective mobile operator, he said.
When Shamsudoha contacted the customer care centre of Airtel, he was asked to go the operator’s head office.
“This is a hassle for me. And both the government and the operator are responsible for it, as SIMs were registered without proper authentication.”
Meanwhile, some users are facing a diametrically opposite problem: the text messages they received from their operators said they received a fewer number of SIMs under their names than they had re-registered.
Faisal Ahmed, lecturer of a college in the city said, he had registered two numbers with her fingerprints but the SMS mentioned only one SIM.
It was observed that a large number of pre-activated SIMs were registered biometrically with duplicate fingerprints and national identity cards are floated the market for open sale.
However, 4,342 fake biometrically-activated SIM cards of different mobile operators have made the government to take note of it. Even more alarming is the fact that all these fake SIMs were recovered from a single dealer in Chittagong a few months ago.
An investigation has revealed that these SIMs were biometrically activated by some people in exchange for money or other rewards.
At a high-level meeting led by the state minister for telecommunications, it was decided that stern action would be taken against the persons responsible and also the mobile operators. The telecom regulator will fine the mobile operators US$ 50 for each pre-activated fake SIM.
Around 77,000 fake SIMs were recovered from the dealer in Chittagong, 4,342 of them biometrically activated, exposing the chinks in the entire security system.
Not only Chittagong, the police have recovered fake SIMs from different parts of the capital like Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Mohammadpur areas.
Tarana Halim told media, “We have not found any weakness in our system. Some dishonest dealers are involved in the fake biometric SIM registration. We have found that customers registered their SIMs properly, but some dealers lied to them that their SIMs were not biometrically registered in the first attempt and told them to do it again.”
The government also checked the National Identity Cards (NIDs) and fingerprints, but did not find any irregularities, she said.
