The telecom regulator yesterday sought public opinion on draft guidelines of National Equipment Identity Register (NEIR), a system meant to check use of fake handsets.
The draft guideline is available on Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s website, btrc.gov.bd. Interested parties, or individuals may send feedbacks by 3 November on [email protected] and [email protected].
The BTRC in a notice late July asked mobile phone users to check the authenticity of their mobile handsets before they purchased and warned that the Commission would disconnect the fake handsets from network once the NEIR came into operation.
In the notice, the telecom regulator said if any mobile phone handset was found with clone or a wrong IMEI number, a unique number to mark a handset, it would be disconnected.
“Customers are advised to check the authenticity before buying handsets. In the message option of any phone, customers should type KYD<space>15-digit IMEI number and send it to 16002 to get the proper information about the handset,” said the BTRC notice issued on July 29.
“Also, customers can know IMEI information by dialing *#06#,” reads the notice.
BTRC officials say the clone IMEI handsets come mostly through illegal channels.
“Most of such handsets cannot be tracked and are used in unlawful activities. Besides, clone IMEI handsets can put an original handset user in trouble if it is used in illegal activities,” a BTRC official told Dhaka Tribune.
BTRC officials said the installment of the NEIR under process and might come into operation during the end of the year.
In January this year, BTRC seized 700 mobile phone handsets which were imported illegally through conducting raids at Eastern Plaza and Motalib Plaza shopping complexes in the capital.
