Bangladesh goes tough against mobile handsets imported through unauthorized channels

DHAKA, Jan. 27 (NsNewsWire) — Bangladeshi State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim has announced to go tough against illegally imported mobile handsets in order to protect the consumers from counterfeits.

“We’ll launch a drive against illegally imported mobile handsets after ongoing bio-metric SIM registration process completes,” she said.

Addressing a views-exchange meeting with the newly elected office bearers of Telecom Reporters’ Network of Bangladesh or TRNB and its members, Tarana Halim further said the registration of mobile phone handsets will start from February.

She said Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association is developing an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) data base, which will be launched on Feb. 6
Legally imported handsets with IMEI numbers will be contained in the data base which is to be preserved by BTRC.

IMEI is a 15-digit number unique to each legal mobile set, and can be used to recover a lost or stolen handset. Users can find the IMEI number below the battery or at the back or bottom of the device.

Bangladeshi Posts and Telecommunications Secretary Faizur Rahman Chowdhury, Rased Mehedi, president, Shamim Ahmed, general secretary, of TRNB,  among others, were present in the view exchange meeting held at the conference room of the ministry at Bangladesh Secretariat in capital Dhaka on Tuesday morning.