October 21, 2008

Activation of New SIMs after Verification

Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to implement a system for activation of new mobile SIMs after verification of customers antecedents from January 31, 2009. Â This decision was taken unanimously in a meeting of mobile companies CEOs and the regulatory affairs officials held at PTA H/Qs. The meeting was chaired by Chairman PTA and attended by senior PTA officials.

The Chairman said that from January 31, 2009 onwards non-active mobile SIMs will be sold which will be activated only after the verification of consumer data from NADRA, subsequently sale of pre-activated SIMs will be stopped.

The meeting held discussion on the proposed model for activation of new SIMs after verification of customer data. Companies were earlier asked to present proposed model in line with the Ministry of IT & T Policy Directive on Online Verification and PTA Standing Operating Procedures (SoP).

Furthermore, according to the policy 10 mobile connections could be issued on one CNIC. On this account 2.6 million SIMs have already been blocked and remaining will be either regularized or blocked by October 21. Similarly, unverified connections sold up till August 31,2008 will also be blocked by October 21, 2008.

The Chairman announced that PTA will conduct a survey to check violation of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) after two weeks. If any violation is observed the Authority will issue Show Cause Notice and impose fines on the mobile companies, he said.

It was also decided that to educate the subscribers to have SIMs registered in their names media awareness campaign will be run by PTA and the mobile operators.

 

Muhammad Younis

Director (Media & Communications)

urdu press release