“We will silence unregistered SIMs since they are being used in crimes,” she told reporters during a BTRC drive against such SIMs in Dhaka on Thursday.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose said they were taking steps against the menace.
But they were yet to set a deadline.
“Sudden deactivation of these SIMs will have a negative impact on the telecom businesses,” he said, responding to a query. “There’s still time to register these SIMs.”
Bose said they would set a cut-off date for registering the SIMs and then deactivate the unregistered SIMs once the time was over.
There are about 126.87 million mobile-phone subscribers in Bangladesh, the BTRC said citing data until June this year.
State Minister Halim spoke about deactivating SIMs without registration several days ago. The BTRC then launched the drive with its mobile team.