The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has asked mobile subscribers to deactivate any extra SIMs beyond the allowed limit of 10 under one national identity card (NID) by October 30, or face automatic cancellation.

In a notice on its verified Facebook page, the commission said, “Customers who do not voluntarily cancel their additional SIMs within the deadline will have them automatically deactivated under a random selection process.”

BTRC said the initiative aims to curb crimes, strengthen cyber security, stop the use of fake or unregistered SIMs, and ensure transparency in digital identity.

Subscribers can retain any 10 SIMs of their choice and must deactivate or transfer ownership of the rest through their respective operators’ customer care centers by October 30.

Users can check how many SIMs are registered under their NID by dialing *16001# and sending the last four digits of the NID number.

According to the regulator, there are now 188.64 million registered SIMs in the country.