Grameenphone, the leading mobile phone operator in the country, has started a process to recycle or resell the unused numbers which do not have any activity since last one year from the expiration of last recharge.
Sources of the operator informed that through the process some long term unused SIMs’ ownership might change.
The operator had already written about it to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), and was preparing for the recycling.
“We sent an intimation letter to the regulatory board two months ago. As the BTRC did not inform us anything about it yet, we are just going to start our recycling process,” Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affair officer of Grameenphone, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He also said they were working on it in full swing and would go public within a short time.
In the letter, Grameenphone mentioned about the National Numbering Plan 2005, and said with the 11 digit mobile number plan an operator had the capacity of 10 crore mobile numbers, whereas Grameenphone had already used around 8.13 crore numbers.
As per the current status, introduction of 3G had fostered the increasing number of GP customers, and around 1.39 crore SIMs were sold only in 2013, the letter mentioned, and added that Grameenphone would reach its highest capacity within a few months.
The letter also expressed concerns that if Grameenphone did not start the recycling process soon, they would have to stop selling.
Currently, the total number of disconnected GP SIMs were occupying almost 20% of number plan capacity of Grameenphone, the letter outlined, and said the company wished to implement the recycling or reuse concept to utilise the huge number of disconnected numbers as recycling was a common practice in global telecommunication industry as well.
Sources at the operator company claimed that if they could delete these disconnected numbers from their database, it would reduce their maintenance costs.
The letter, regarding the change in ownership of numbers, says: “As per the clause of our 3G license, it has been made clear that allocation of a number does not confer ownership of the number by the customer and Grameenphone, as operator, can withdraw or change the number by giving a three months’ notice period.”
On the other hand, another mobile phone operator Robi also requested the BTRC and the NBR to allow them to reuse disconnected SIM’s.
“We have informally requested the regulatory bodies to allow us to use unused SIM’s,” Mahtabuddin Ahmed, chief operating officer of Robi, told the Dhaka Tribune recently.
Meanwhile, officials at the mobile operator companies claimed that if the BTRC directed them to add one more digit, which would increase their cost and the users would have to take the hassle of adding one digit to every number in their phonebooks.
