BTRC orders to close extra SIM cards by Dec 31

Staff Correspondent: A user will now be allowed to use maximum 15 SIM cards with his/her national identity (NID) card as per the decision taken by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

The BTRC has issued an instruction in this regard on Tuesday.

Earlier on June 12, 2016, the government decided to allow each consumer to use maximum 20 SIM cards and on August 4 last, they decided to cut the number down to five.

BTRC took the latest decision under the instruction of high level authority of the government. It also directed all the chief executives of all mobile operators regarding the matter.

According to the instruction, BTRC will close the numbers randomly after 31 December, if anyone found using more than 15 SIM cards with one national identity card.

Consumers who have more than 15 SIM cards are requested to deactivate their extra contact numbers from the respective customer care offices by themselves within 31 December, the instruction wrote.

As it is not realistic to determine SIM card numbers for corporate consumers, so people who have corporate permission to buy SIM or RIM will be out of this purview, the BTRC instruction said.

Consumers can find out the numbers of SIM cards they have against their passport, NID, driving license or birth certificate in two ways-

By dialing *16001# and sending the last four digits of NID number when asked through USSD code or, by sending SMS typing the last four digits of NID number and send it to 16001.

risingbd/Dhaka/Dec 5, 2017/Yeamin/AI