Deadline for biometric re-registration of SIM cards extended by a month

The government has extended the deadline for biometric re-registration of mobile phone SIM cards by a month to end of May.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 30 April 2016, 11:44 AM
Updated : 30 April 2016, 05:33 PM

State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim announced the extension during a press conference in the capital on Saturday, just a few hours before the expiry of the previously set deadline.

She said the re-registration process would now be allowed up to the last hour of May 31.

All connections that remain unregistered after the expiry of the new deadline will be deactivated without prior notice, she added.

SIM re-registration with biometric data began on Dec 16 following a government order in an effort to stop the use of mobile phones for criminal activities.

The government had set Apr 30 as the deadline for the re-registration but several stakeholders in the sector demanded an extension.

According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, re-registration of 83.8 million SIM cards of a total of about 130 million subscribers had been completed by Thursday.

Another 12.5 million subscribers who turned up at the registration centres could not complete the process for technical faults among other reasons.

Tarana told a press meet at the BTRC headquarters on Saturday afternoon, After midnight of May 31, we won’t just temporarily block the (unregistered) SIMs, we’ll deactivate them permanently without any prior notice.”

The junior minister said connections blocked after May 31 would not be resold for the next 15 months. The move aims to facilitate the re-registration of SIMs belonging to non-resident Bangladeshis or peacekeepers when they return home.

BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood said the biometric re-registration of around 90 million SIM cards has ‘made history’ in Bangladesh.

During another event earlier in the day, the state minister thanked the subscribers who had already reregistered their SIM cards.

With the deadline fast approaching, the re-registration centres saw a huge rush of subscribers on Friday and Saturday.