Mobile operators cannot sell any SIM card for 18 hours starting from 8:00pm Thursday as the telecom regulator plans to update its central biometric verification monitoring system.

Law enforcers have claimed detention of three people, including an alleged official of mobile operator Airtel, on charge of selling SIM cards registered with false information.

The cost of using a mobile phone would go up by more than two percent as the proposed budget looks to hike the supplementary duty on SIM usage.

Subscribers using biometrically unregistered SIM cards will have their outgoing calls blocked after today, while incoming calls are likely to stay active for “a few hours”, according to a top official of a telecom operator.

Police in a drive seize 8,000 SIM cards of different operators, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment, a computer and arrest one person from Tongi’s Madhya Arichpur area.

The High Court yesterday cleared way for the mobile carriers to continue with the biometric registration of SIM cards.

The High Court clears way for mobile operators to continue biometric registration of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards amid widespread skepticism. It orders authorities to “strongly protect” customer data obtained in this process and told mobile operators to strongly follow telecom regulator’s directives in this regard.

The cabinet yesterday assured mobile phone users that their privacy and safety would not be endangered after the biometric registration of their SIM cards.

Telecom operators will sign deals with the Election Commission today to get access to the national identification database to introduce biometric registration system for new SIM cards.

A special team of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) seizes unregistered SIM cards and illegally imported electronic devices from a Gadget & Gear store in Uttara of Dhaka.

Myanmar scraps proposed 5 percent tax on mobile phone top-up cards after lawmakers voted against the levy, the state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Thursday.