Subscribers can re-buy blocked SIM after deadline

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Sunday instructed the mobile phone operators to shut Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards after May 31 deadline.

Besides, a meeting held between a designated director of the BTRC and the country’s mobile phone operators today also finalized the procedure to re-open the blocked SIM cards.  

Source said, the subscribers who will fail to re-register their connection biometrically, their SIM cards will be blocked. If any subscriber wants to re-open his/her SIM then he/she will have to re-buy it using biometric details.

For re-bought SIMs, operators will have to pay Tk 100 tax per SIM – the same as a new connection. If the subscribers won’t re-buy their blocked SIMs then as per the regulation, the operators could sell these after 18 months, said the source.   


On the other hand, a special meeting of the BTRC chaired by its Chairman Dr. Shahjahan Mahmood today fixed TK 500 crore as fee for Robi-Airtel merger and a decision was taken to send a recommendation in this regard to the high-ups of the government.