BTRC set to crack down on SIMs registered with fake details

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.

Of the 13.26 crore active connections in Bangladesh, 11.6 crore were re-registered, 40-50 lakh of which were done with forged biometric details, said senior executives of different mobile operators.

Now, the individuals whose details were falsely used for the re-registration process need to deactivate those connections.

"It will be challenging for the carriers to reach all the affected customers physically," said a senior officer of a mobile operator.

Furthermore, to deactivate numbers subscribers have to visit the operators' customer care centres, but not all operators have physical presence in rural areas.

Acknowledging it as a serious problem, a high official of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said they are discussing the issue with the operators to find a solution.

"Once the deactivation directive is finalised the operators will send another SMS to their customers about the deactivation process," he said.

About the issue, Tarana Halim, state minister for telecom, said after formulating the guideline they will go for tough actions to find out the fake re-registered numbers.

Tauhidul Alam Nahid, a senior executive of the Crystal Group, a pioneering event management company in the capital, found eight SIMs has 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 Nahid. He wrote about the matter on the Facebook page of Halim but got no reply.

Md Sajal Mia, a student of Government Shahid Suhrawardy 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.

When Mia 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. Fahima Khatun, a television journalist, said she had registered two numbers with her fingerprints but the SMS mentioned only one SIM.

A large number of pre-activated SIMs -- registered biometrically with duplicate fingerprints and national identity cards -- are streaming into the market for open sale.

This correspondent also bought two SIMs of Grameenphone and Banglalink and found both the connections were pre-activated with biometric registration.

At the end of last year, the government started a process of re-registering SIMs, which ran until May 31 this year.

Earlier, she also said operators will be fined $50 for each illegal re-registration, but sources said nothing will be mentioned about fines in the directive.