The government has introduced a new rule allowing a maximum of 10 registered SIM cards per national identity (NID) card. Those who currently hold more than 10 registered SIMs will see their extra SIMs deactivated in phases.
Before the deactivation begins, users will be given an opportunity to cancel any unnecessary SIM registrations voluntarily. The entire process is expected to be completed by November, sources concerned said.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) decided in May to reduce the number of SIMs per user to a maximum of 10, citing national security concerns, unhealthy competition among operators, and alignment with international practices.
The decision has been approved by the Posts and Telecommunications Division.
According to BTRC, this move will result in the closure of 6.7 million SIMs belonging to 2.6 million users. Currently, there are 67.59 million genuine SIM users in the country, with 80.32% using five or fewer SIMs, 16.23% using six to 10, and only 3.45% using 11 to 15 SIMs.
From August 1, users will get three months to voluntarily reduce their SIM count to 10. After that, BTRC will begin closing extra SIMs in phases. The process will take five to six months.
A vendor of the Central Biometric Verification Monitoring Platform will prepare a list of users holding more than 10 SIMs and share it with the respective operators. Operators will then contact these users via SMS and publish notifications on their websites, urging them to comply.
Users can check their registered SIM count by dialing *16001# and transfer ownership of extra SIMs if necessary. The deadline for this phase is expected to be extended to October 30.
SIMs will be prioritised for retention based on recent usage and revenue contribution, ensuring at least one SIM from each operator remains active for multi-operator users. Any necessary Mobile Financial Service (MFS) SIMs will also be prioritised.
Once the top 10 SIMs are finalized, the rest will be deregistered by November. BTRC clarified that if any essential SIM is mistakenly deactivated, users can re-register it through their operator.
