PTA has changed the process of issuing mobile phone SIMs
in Pakistan.
The Process of issuing Mobile Phones SIMs has been
changed.
To prevent forgery and fraud across Pakistan, Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has changed the process of issuing mobile
phone SIMs in collaboration with the National Databases Registration Authority
(NADRA) and mobile companies. According to the statement issued by the PTA,
fingerprints of those who wish to get a mobile SIM will be verified not as before
but under an automatic system across the country.
Until now, mobile SIMs
operators used to instruct the user to place a particular finger on the machine
and the machine would authorize the user after verifying that finger. However,
now the mobile SIM’s operator will not give any instructions to the user, but
the user himself or herself will place each finger on the machine and the
machine will automatically identify a specific finger and qualify the user for
the SIM. Under this method, the machine will scan the fingers of both the
user’s hands and after verifying both the thumbs and fingers, the user will be
eligible for the SIM. Under the new mechanism, there will be no role of the
mobile SIM operator or anyone else. If the machine has difficulty scanning a
user’s fingers or the user’s fingerprints cannot be verified, the SIM card will
not be issued to the user.
The above procedure has been developed by PTA with
the support of NADRA and mobile service providers and is being considered the best procedure so far. NADRA, along with PTAs and mobile service providers,
hopes that the above procedure will prevent forgery or fraud in the issuance of
mobile SIMs. The new system is named Multi-Finger Biometric Verification
System, (MBVS) while the system implemented earlier was called Biometric
Verification System, (BVS). The aforementioned new procedure for issuing SIM
cards was inaugurated on December 23-2023 and was immediately implemented across
the country.
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