Govt to block unregistered cell phones: Palak
Staff Reporter :
The government has directed the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to take steps to block all unregistered mobile phones.
The BTRC has a database and automatic registration system of mobile handsets manufactured, assembled and imported in the country, so it must have to blockthe unregistered mobile phones.
State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak issued the directive at a meeting with senior officials of the BTRC held at the commission office in the city’s Agargaon area on Tuesday.
According to BTRC, the total number of Mobile Phone subscribers has reached 190.36 Million at the end of November, 2023.
As per last year’s BTRC November’s data, the total subscribers of Grameenphone Ltd (GP) was 82.14 million, Robi Axiata Limited (Robi) 58.38 million, Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd 43.38 million and Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd (Teletalk) 6.46 million.
Noting that there is no alternative to taking initiatives to increase export income and investment, create employment and increase revenue in the telecommunication and information technology sectors to lay the foundation for ‘Smart Bangladesh’ with specific goals in the next five years, Zunaid Ahmed Palak directed all concerned to work with utmost sincerity to achieve this goal.
During the current global economic crisis, a simple technology-based solution can benefit the country in many ways, increasing exports, investment and employment, and maintaining law and order, Palak said.
Mentioning that a revolutionary change has taken place in service delivery through ‘Parichoy’ verification authentication service, he put emphasise on making all databases interoperable with one another to make the service more accessible.
Meanwhile, a National Equipment Identity Register (NEIR) system has been installed in the BTRC to ensure customer ownership through mobile phone registration, to prevent production, import and marketing of fake and low-quality handsets, to stop theft and misuse of mobile phones and to bring discipline in the mobile phone industry sector.
“There has been a revolutionary change in providing services through ‘identity verification authentication service. To make this service more accessible, each database needs to be interoperable with each other,” the ICT State Minister said.
Among others, BTRC Chairman Engineer Md Mohiuddin Ahmed and Spectrum Division Commissioner Engineer Sheikh Riaz Ahmed, National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) Director General (DG) Major General Ziaul Ahsan, BTRC DG (admin) Abdullah Al Mamun, DG (engineering and operations) Brigadier General Md Ehsanul Kabir, DG (spectrum) Brigadier General Mohammad Maniruzzaman Jwel and DG (system and services) Brigadier General Mohammad Khalil-Ur-Rahman attended the meeting.
Earlier on October 4, 2021, the BTRC had blocked 81,868 new handsets from connecting to mobile networks because they were not registered with the National Equipment Identity Register.
At the same period, another 145,000 other handsets were connected to networks for the first time over the two days.
