Operators need two days to deactivate unregistered SIM cards after May 31

It may take two days or more to deactivate the unregistered mobile-phone SIM cards after the May 31 deadline, operators say.

Altogether 100.9 million of 131.94 million SIMs that are with subscribers have been re-registered with biometric details, State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim told a press briefing on Sunday.

Though they account for over 76 percent of active mobile-phone connections, over 30 millions SIMs are yet to be re-registered.

Biometric re-registration of SIMs would be allowed up to the last hour of May 31. All unregistered connections after the expiry of this deadline would be deactivated without prior notice.

Regarding their preparations to deactivate the unregistered SIMs from the zero hour, Airtel CEO Prasanta Das Sarma told reporters that they had completed preparations.

Grameenphone’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Mahmud Hossain said they were done with the arrangements too and the process would not face any trouble.

The operators suspect that the number of SIMs not registered with biometric details may cross 30 million.

Several high officials of the mobile operators told bdnews24.com that the deactivation process will start from the zero hour, but it would not be possible to shut down all unregistered SIMs at once.

That could take a day or two, depending on the number of unregistered SIMs, they said.

An official with Grameenphone, the operator with the biggest subscriber base inVangladesh, told bdnews24.com, “Nearly 10 million SIMs of our subscribers are yet to be re-registered biometrically. But that number may drop by May 31.”

The official said it may take more than two days to deactivate their unregistered SIMs.

SIM cards are not being sold without buyers’ fingerprints any more.

The biometric registration and re-registration process, which began on Dec 16 last year, is aimed at controlling crimes committed by using mobile-phone connections under false identity.