Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Tuesday said that a user would now be allowed to use maximum 15 SIM cards with his/her national identity (NID) card.
This is a three-time increase from the government’s last decision of allowing up to five SIM cards for each user.
Earlier on June 12 in 2016, the government decided to allow each consumer to use maximum 20 SIM cards, but on August 4 the same year, they cut the number down to five.
BTRC Secretary Sarwar Alam said that they took the latest decision
under the instruction of the high level authority of the government. The regulatory body also directed all the chief executives of all mobile operators in this regard.
The BTRC will close the numbers randomly within December 31, if anyone found using more than 15 SIM cards with one national identity card, he said.
Consumers who have more than 15 SIM cards are urged to deactivate their extra contact numbers from the respective customer care offices by themselves within December 31, he added.
According to BTRC, as it is not realistic to determine SIM card numbers for corporate consumers, so people who have corporate permission to buy SIM or RIM will be out of this purview.
Consumers can find out about the numbers of SIM cards they have against their passport, NID, driving license or birth certificate in two ways-
By dialing *16001# and sending the last four digits of NID number when asked through USSD code or, by sending SMS typing the last four digits of NID number and send it to 16001.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Tuesday said that a user would now be allowed to use maximum 15 SIM cards with his/her national identity (NID) card.
This is a three-time increase from the government’s last decision of allowing up to five SIM cards for each user.
Earlier on June 12 in 2016, the government decided to allow each consumer to use maximum 20 SIM cards, but on August 4 the same year, they cut the number down to five.
BTRC Secretary Sarwar Alam said that they took the latest decision
under the instruction of the high level authority of the government. The regulatory body also directed all the chief executives of all mobile operators in this regard.
The BTRC will close the numbers randomly within December 31, if anyone found using more than 15 SIM cards with one national identity card, he said.
Consumers who have more than 15 SIM cards are urged to deactivate their extra contact numbers from the respective customer care offices by themselves within December 31, he added.
According to BTRC, as it is not realistic to determine SIM card numbers for corporate consumers, so people who have corporate permission to buy SIM or RIM will be out of this purview.
Consumers can find out about the numbers of SIM cards they have against their passport, NID, driving license or birth certificate in two ways-
By dialing *16001# and sending the last four digits of NID number when asked through USSD code or, by sending SMS typing the last four digits of NID number and send it to 16001.
