Staff Reporter :Mandated by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission [BTRC], re-registration process of SIM [subscriber identity module] would start on Sunday.Government said it will ultimately protect subscribers from misuse or confidentiality infringement.Subscribers who will re-register their SIM cards in prescribed forms within the due date will be prevented from disconnection of lines. The BTRC has advised mobile subscribers to abide by the regulation and update their personal details through local operators and their agents.In this regard, State Minister for Post and Telecommunication Tarana Halim on Wednesday said all mobile phone users must re-register and clarify their numbers within three months. ‘The re-registration process for mobile phone SIMs will start from Sunday,’ she said.The state minister in a meeting with the members of Telecommunication Reporters’ Association of Bangladesh [TRB] said the SIM users have to register their numbers between 13 September and 13 December. ‘The un-registered numbers will be void. The government has taken the decision for ensuring public security,’ the State Minister saidMeanwhile, the concern circle has criticized the government’s latest decision to re-registration of SIM cards terming it totally “troublesome”.They said there are several qualified persons in different professions those have already registered their SIM cards giving accurate identification. Then why should they have to face trouble again for re-registration? Why they will suffer from government’s system failure? Mohammad Ali, an official of Sonali Bank asked how many times he will have to mobile SIM registration. He said SIM re-registration is a type of harassment. “To ensure security, SIM registration one time is enough,” he said.Officials said the information provided by the mobile phone users will be cross checked with National Identity Card [NID].”Those having their SIM cards registered will also have to check if the registration was done correctly. Otherwise, the cards will be temporarily blocked, which will be followed by a final block,” said the state minister.Earlier, the BTRC took same initiative bur failed as there was no NID database at the time. But now the Election Commission [EC] has an NID database. The BTRC will also sign an agreement with the EC as the mobile operators could enter the NID database to check the users’ identity. There are 12.87 crore active mobile subscribers in the country, according to latest statistics from the BTRC, the telecom regulatory body of Bangladesh.
