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. The decision was taken unanimously in a meeting of mobile companies CEOs and the regulatory affairs officials here on Tuesday.
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 would be activated only after the verification of consumer data from Nadra, subsequently sale of pre-activated SIMs would be stopped. The meeting discussed proposed model for activation of new SIMs after verification of customer data.
It may be noted that so far 10.5 million unverified connections have been blocked of which 7.9 million were unregistered. Furthermore, according to the policy 10 mobile connections could be issued on one NIC. On this account 2.6 million SIMs have already been blocked and remaining will be either regularised 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 showcause 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.