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Roundup: Mandatory SIM card online re-registration in Bangladesh starts next week

Xinhua, September 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Every mobile phone subscriber in Bangladesh will have to either re-register or verify their SIM ( subscriber identity module) cards as part of the government's move to crackdown on the fraudulent and criminal use of handsets.

Mobile subscribers who already registered once in the past have been asked to further verify information and relevant documents which they submitted while buying a SIM card.

Sources said the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has already asked the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission for measures to start online re-registration of all sim cards to support its move for a fresh database of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers in a bid to check mobile phone-related crimes including terrorism and extortion.

On Wednesday, it also asked the country's millions of mobile phone users for verification and re-registration of their SIM cards.

Bangladeshi State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim made the announcement at a meeting with TRNB or Telecom Reporters' Network of Bangladesh, saying that re- registration and verification of mobile SIM cards will begin on Sept. 13 and continue for three months.

She said subscribers who have already registered their SIM cards should update their personal information within next three months.

In a bid to check mobile phone-related crimes including terrorism and extortion, sources said the Bangladeshi government has recently decided to prepare a new database of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers which reached 126.87 million at the end of June with over six and a half million new users in the first six months of the year.

According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) data, the number of subscribers of the six mobile operators, Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi Axiata, Airtel, Teletalk and Citycell at the end of June stood at 53.129 million, 32.224 million, 27.368 million, 8.743 million, 4.216 million and 1.187 million respectively.

The total number of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers reached nearly 120.350 million at the end of December 2014, showed the BTRC data. Endi