As per BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) directive issued on September 2012, retailers can’t sale pre activated SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card with proper documents like National ID card and photograph, then mobile phone operators have to check the documents and if those are found correct, then they can activate the newly purchased SIM card.
This directive was issued to avoid illegal use SIM card by the criminals. But now it is not followed properly. Pre activated SIM cards are available on market and no documents are required to buy those. Officials of law enforcing agencies are saying that now they are finding it very difficult to track criminals because of unregistered SIM.
It is alleged that mobile phone operators are allowing their retailers to sell this type of unregistered SIM. But they are denying the allegation and arguing that they don’t have the access to National ID database so they can’t check whether the documents submitted by the subscribers are correct or not. BTRC official has said that they have taken an initiative to allow the access to the database to the operators.
