Blocking unregistered SIM cards
Teletalk misses second deadline
State-owned mobile operator Teletalk has failed to meet the June 15 extended deadline set by the government to block all its unregistered SIMs. As a result, illegal calls are still being terminated with unregistered Teletalk SIMs.
The five other operators in the country blocked all their unregistered SIMs by May 31. Teletalk, however, had asked for a two-week extension, pleading that it uses the manual system to block SIMs, which requires time. Last week, state minister for post and telecommunications, Tarana Halim, granted Teletalk a two-week extension and asked it to block all its SIMs by June 15. However, Gias Uddin Ahmed, MD of Teletalk, admitted that they have not been able to block all SIMs. The manual system that we use can block 5,000 SIMs per day. We still have around 2 million unregistered SIMs. We cannot block all of those within such a short timeframe, he said. Industry experts said that at this rate, it would take Teletalk around a year to block all SIMs. Until then, these SIMs can be used for illegal call termination. Sources in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said that they have detected, with the help of their state-of-the-art SIM box-detection tool, that most illegal calls have been terminated with the help of Teletalk SIMs. The call reports were generated by SIGOS (previously Meucci Solutions)
technology. It identified the illegal calls made through all the six mobile operators in detail. It showed that on June 15, the number of calls terminated using Teletalk SIMs was 1,732, while only three illegal calls were terminated by Robi, two by Grameenphone (GP), one by Banglalink, and none using Airtel or Citycell connections.
It is to be noted that the BTRC had blocked nearly 120,000 SIM cards of the state-run operator for illegal call terminations in June 2015.
An official with another operator told The Independent that Teletalks excuse that it cannot block more than 5,000 SIMs per day is incorrect. The official claimed that if Teletalk wants, it can block all its SIM within four hours. They have a database of all their unregistered SIMs. Its just a matter of command in the central database to block all of those. The excuse that Teletalk needs to block all of those manually is wrong, the source alleged.
TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of the Association of Mobile Telephone Operators of Bangladesh, said, The rules should be the same for all the operators. The government directive is to block all unregistered SIMs.
According to BTRC data, the number of active subscribers in the country is 131.95 million, of which over 116 million have already completed biometric registration.
By May 31, 49.6 million SIMs of GP, 27.8 million of Banglalink, 20.2 million of Robi, 7.4 million of Airtel, 2.3 million of Teletalk, and 2.2 million of Citycell were re-registered. The rest of the 23.84 million active SIMs were blocked alongside 76.159 million inactive SIMs.
The number of unregistered SIMs in the country currently stands at 1.51.8million.
o meet the June 15 extended deadline set by the government to block all its unregistered SIMs. As a result, illegal calls are still being terminated with unregistered Teletalk SIMs.
The five other operators in the country blocked all their unregistered SIMs by May 31. Teletalk, however, had asked for a two-week extension, pleading that it uses the manual system to block SIMs, which requires time. Last week, state minister for post and telecommunications, Tarana Halim, granted Teletalk a two-week extension and asked it to block all its SIMs by June 15.
However, Gias Uddin Ahmed, MD of Teletalk, admitted that they have not been able to block all SIMs. The manual system that we use can block 5,000 SIMs per day. We still have around 2 million unregistered SIMs. We cannot block all of those within such a short timeframe, he said. Industry experts said that at this rate, it would take Teletalk around a year to block all SIMs. Until then, these SIMs can be used for illegal call termination.
Sources in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said that they have detected, with the help of their state-of-the-art SIM box-detection tool, that most illegal calls have been terminated with the help of Teletalk SIMs.
The call reports were generated by SIGOS (previously Meucci Solutions) technology. It identified the illegal calls made through all the six mobile operators in detail. It showed that on June 15, the number of calls terminated using Teletalk SIMs was 1,732, while only three illegal calls were terminated by Robi, two by Grameenphone (GP), one by Banglalink, and none using Airtel or Citycell connections.
It is to be noted that the BTRC had blocked nearly 120,000 SIM cards of the state-run operator for illegal call terminations in June 2015.
An official with another operator told The Independent that Teletalks excuse that it cannot block more than 5,000 SIMs per day is incorrect. The official claimed that if Teletalk wants, it can block all its SIM within four hours. They have a database of all their unregistered SIMs. Its just a matter of command in the central database to block all of those. The excuse that Teletalk needs to block all of those manually is wrong, the source alleged.
TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of the Association of Mobile Telephone Operators of Bangladesh, said, The rules should be the same for all the operators. The government directive is to block all unregistered SIMs.
According to BTRC data, the number of active subscribers in the country is 131.95 million, of which over 116 million have already completed biometric registration.
By May 31, 49.6 million SIMs of GP, 27.8 million of Banglalink, 20.2 million of Robi, 7.4 million of Airtel, 2.3 million of Teletalk, and 2.2 million of Citycell were re-registered. The rest of the 23.84 million active SIMs were blocked alongside 76.159 million inactive SIMs. The number of unregistered SIMs in the country currently stands at 1.51.8million.
