BTRC order to update mobile user info creates complexity Telcos say drive won’t be effective unless they get NID acces .

A Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission order to update mobile phone subscriber information created a complexity as the operators are yet to have a mechanism to crosscheck user information. The BTRC on Thursday in a meeting with the chief executive officers of five private mobile operators again asked for re-registration of SIMs. The regulator also termed the mobile operators lethargic about the issue. The BTRC move came following a request from the law enforcement agencies to update, and if necessary, re-register the customer information on security ground as much user information are found outdated. The officials of the mobile phone companies, however, said updating the user information could not be effective as the BTRC was yet to provide the access to national ID database for SIM registration verification.

The re-registration of SIM can also be a subject to SIM tax, which is paid by the operators, but there is no clear instruction about who will bear the cost, they said. ‘If users update their information there is no guarantee that it will be true as we cannot verify the information. As the move of the re-registration came following security concern, it will be better to it after we get access to the NID database,’ a senior official of a mobile company told New Age on Saturday. Unless the users update the information voluntarily, there is no way to force them because of lack of access to the NID database, he said. ‘For example, if a user has nothing to update, he will not come to us for the re-registration. Now we cannot distinguish between who actually needs information update and who doesn’t,’ he said. A senior official of another mobile company said if any user needed to complete the re-registration, it could be a subject to tax. ‘If a user finds out that the SIM is registered to someone else, he has to go through a complete the re-registration.

We don’t know for sure that in such cases the National Board of Revenue will demand SIM tax as we have to charge the user,’ he said. BTRC officials, however, said the mobile phone companies are lacklustre about the re-registration campaign as it would reduce their subscriber base. ‘A complete re-registration will reduce the active number of users of the mobile phone companies. That’s why the operators are not interested to do it,’ a senior BTRC official said. The BTRC is still working to allow operators the NID access although the process started one and a half years back, he said.

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