Pakistan to tighten SIM verification for mobiles

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to tighten SIM activation procedures in view of the growing sale of SIMs without prior verification of customer antecedents.

In a move designed to curb malpractices, PTA has introduced a series of procedures in consultation with operators and enforcement agencies that the operators would be required to follow to ensure proper verification of customer antecedents.

The PTA plans to introduce ''inactive SIMs'' in the market. Their activation would require verification of the subscriber's background from the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA).

The sale outlets will only retail inactive SIMs, which the customer would have to get activated by dialling a call centre of the mobile telephony operator using the SIM card.

The customer will be asked a few questions to verify the details by the call centre operator. If the answers are found satisfactory, the SIM will be activated.

Customers will be given an instructions card detailing activation procedure. The SIM can be activated within a maximum of 24 hours after the sale.

The new procedure would come into effect from 1 February  2009. The procedure has several advantages including effective verification steps, simple deployment, efficient utilisation of call-based online verification and centralised control and responsibility.

The PTA had previously introduced procedures to keep a check over the increasing number of cases of companies failing to properly verify customer antecedents. On 28 June 2005 it laid own a standard operating procedure (SOP) that mandated mobile companies to get the details verified through the NDRA database and register new connections after proper verification.

In May 2007 the PTA split the verification process in two parts for new connection sales and cleaning of old data. A considerable amount of old data was cleaned through the NADRA database leading to substantial improvement in sales of new connections through the franchisees.

With only a few days left for the launch of the new system of activation procedure for SIMs on 1 February, the major cellular operators have yet made the necessary preparations in the direction of implementation. According to an Islamabad-based official of the PTA, two of the leading cellular companies have been served notices for their lax conformance with the directive.

Elaborating on the subject further, the official said that the PTA move has been met by a general reluctance among operators to involve Nadra in the process. Some of the operators are yet to sign an agreement with Nadra in this regard he added.