LAHORE:
More than 25 million unverified and unclaimed mobile phone subscriber identity modules (SIMs) have been blocked after a three-month deadline for biometric verification of 103m prepaid connections expired on Sunday.
Sources in the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) claimed on Monday that 25m SIMs which could not be verified had been blocked.
They said the phone numbers of those who had failed to get their SIMs verified through the biometric system would not be allotted to anyone else. “They can get their mobile phone numbers unblocked by visiting the customer service centres of the operators concerned during the next six months,” they said, adding that a helpline for the blocked SIMs would remain open during the period.
The telecom operators — Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, Warid and Zong — launched biometric verification of prepaid SIMs on Jan 13 on the directives of the government.
