A trial SIM registration with biometric identification will begin in the capital from Wednesday.
Sajeeb Wazed Joy, ICT advisor to the prime minister, is expected to inaugurate the new SIM registration process at the Posts and Telecommunications Division at the Secretariat.
Tarana Halim, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications, made these statements while speaking at a press conference at her ministry Tuesday.
Marking three months in office, the state minister organised the conference to acquaint the press with the achievements of the different organisations under the Telecommunication Division.
The state minister disclosed the last three months’ performance report of the different government organisations that she fixed after assuming office.
She spoke about various issues, from illegal VOIPs, the performance of the state-run mobile operator Teletalk, Telephone Shilpa Sangstha, and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited to the regulatory body BTRC.
According to the report, most organisations fulfilled 100% of their targets, while those that are a bit behind received reprobation from the junior minister during the press conference.
Tarana Halim said the drive was needed to expedite the performance of all government organisations.
“The target-oriented tasks will continue, which were earlier fixed by the organisation. As a minister, this time I will fix their own targets after consulting with the prime minister,” she said.
She also said that after completion of the trial SIM registration, the original SIM registration with biometric identification would begin on December 16 this year.
Earlier, the trial SIM registration was expected to start on November 1.
“All biometric SIM registration processes are to be completed by March next year; otherwise, mobile operators must face a $50 penalty for each unverified SIM,” the junior minister also said.
“Rectification and development of the sector is my main challenge as a state minister,” she added.
After meeting with all mobile operator CEOs on September 10, Tarana Halim issued directives to all mobile phone operators to start the process of SIM re-registration from September 13.
The state minister added that users would get three months’ time to re-register their SIM cards, after which all unregistered SIMs would be blocked.
She said the Telecommunications Division is monitoring the update of the SIM registration process every day.
According to the latest BTRC statistics, there are 13.14 crore active mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh.
