News Title : BIOMETRIC SIM VERIFICATION : Telcos get greater access to NID database

News Date : 2015-12-03

-Staff Correspondent
The country’s mobile phone operators are now getting greater access to the national identity card database to minimise the mismatch of SIM re-registration through biometric verification, said officials concerned. The mobile operators started the re-registration of the SIM cards following a government drive to tackle various telephony crimes. The re-registration of the SIM cards require the user’s name, date of birth and fingerprint to verify his or her identity, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission officials said. ‘Initially the success rate was 45 per cent which now increased to 80 per cent because of the greater access. Earlier, the operators were only allowed to match the prints of two thumbs but now the two index fingers are also included. So instead of matching prints of two fingers the operators are to match four fingers,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Wednesday. He also said that earlier the operators were only given a Yes or No answer against the information but now the mobile companies were given specific mismatch criteria. ‘So, the operators can re-check the specific problem area and fix that,’ the official said. ‘Even after that there could be some mismatches. So, after finishing the piloting, we will decide about the mismatch issue. We will try to minimise the hassle of the users in such cases,’ he said. The operators started piloting the biometric registration from November 15 which will be mandatory for every new SIM card bought by users after December 16. In the initial result of scrutiny of one crore verified SIMs of the six mobile phone operators, the government has recently found that only 23 lakh SIMs are properly registered.

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