Economic Reporter :
Cellular phone operators have to submit detailed information of retailers and hired persons who were involved with the process of SIM verification using biometric method to seal any type of loophole to ensure security.
The government has taken the decision immediately after the seizure of pre-activated SIMs by the law enforcement agency from the capital city which is supposed to be unavailable following the successful completion of biometric SIM re-registration, said officials of posts and telecommunications division.
They said state minister for posts and telecommunications Tarana Halim directed all the chief executive officers of the operators to submit full information of the retailers and hired persons within 15 days to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
“We’ve completed verification of 11.60 SIMs biometrically with the spontaneous support from people. So, we can’t let our effort go in vain for few unscrupulous people,” said the state minister.
Police in a drive recently seized 13 pre-activated SIMs re-registered with the name of different persons and arrested seven retailers for their alleged involvement in selling the pre-activated SIMs.
Tarana Halim said if there are any pre-activated SIM re-registered with name of different people in the market, the concerned operator has to pay US$ 50 per SIM. “No more pre-activated SIMs should be available in the market. If found, the operator must be penalized US$ 50 for each SIM.”
The state minister said they are going to carry massive campaign to raise awareness among the people of rural areas to stop handover of any SIM.
“Any vested quarter could deceive ordinary villagers in different ways to bag the SIM registered with their (people) names,” she added.
Tarana urged the people not to hand over their SIM in return for any allurement.
She said all the six mobile operators would start to send SMS to each subscriber by July 7, giving the number of SIMs that have been biometrically registered against his or her NID.
Cellular phone operators have to submit detailed information of retailers and hired persons who were involved with the process of SIM verification using biometric method to seal any type of loophole to ensure security.
The government has taken the decision immediately after the seizure of pre-activated SIMs by the law enforcement agency from the capital city which is supposed to be unavailable following the successful completion of biometric SIM re-registration, said officials of posts and telecommunications division.
They said state minister for posts and telecommunications Tarana Halim directed all the chief executive officers of the operators to submit full information of the retailers and hired persons within 15 days to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
“We’ve completed verification of 11.60 SIMs biometrically with the spontaneous support from people. So, we can’t let our effort go in vain for few unscrupulous people,” said the state minister.
Police in a drive recently seized 13 pre-activated SIMs re-registered with the name of different persons and arrested seven retailers for their alleged involvement in selling the pre-activated SIMs.
Tarana Halim said if there are any pre-activated SIM re-registered with name of different people in the market, the concerned operator has to pay US$ 50 per SIM. “No more pre-activated SIMs should be available in the market. If found, the operator must be penalized US$ 50 for each SIM.”
The state minister said they are going to carry massive campaign to raise awareness among the people of rural areas to stop handover of any SIM.
“Any vested quarter could deceive ordinary villagers in different ways to bag the SIM registered with their (people) names,” she added.
Tarana urged the people not to hand over their SIM in return for any allurement.
She said all the six mobile operators would start to send SMS to each subscriber by July 7, giving the number of SIMs that have been biometrically registered against his or her NID.
