A specialised type of SIM cards for tourists is going to be introduced by the end of next month to facilitate smooth staying of foreigners while visiting the country.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Communication (BTRC) has finalised the guidelines in this regard and instructed the mobile operators to get prepared for launching the SIM.
"We have received official instructions to commence selling the SIM. Now, we are in discussion with the regulator about different terms," said Grameenphone's Head of Communication Khairul Basher.
He also said it would take until end of February to launch the specialised type of SIM cards for foreign tourists.
According to the BTRC data, last year some 31,000 SIM cards were registered against foreign passports, while nearly half a million foreigners visited the country.
The complexity of obtaining SIM is one of the reasons for not purchasing local SIM by foreigners, said a BTRC official.
The BTRC has taken the initiative to ease the complexity in getting local SIM by foreigners.
According to the guidelines, the tourist SIMs will be valid for 7, 15 and 30 days in a specific block.
The tourists can register maximum two SIMs against one passport. They can also collect e-SIM (embedded SIM) on demand at the time of entry into the country through any port, as per the guidelines.
The tourist SIMs will be registered separately with the Central Biometric Verification Monitoring Platform of the government, and all related packages and offers of the mobile operators against the SIMs will require prior approval of the BTRC.
If such a SIM is needed for a longer period, the subscriber can exchange it for a regular SIM showing work permit.
Most foreigners and tourists usually visit the country for short periods. Once they leave, the SIMs registered against their passports remain unused and no revenue is generated from those.
As per the rules, an unused registered SIM cannot be re-registered in someone else's name before 540 days.
This results in wastage of limited resources, like mobile station international subscriber directory number, which uniquely identifies each subscription in a mobile network.
