Cellphone re-registration deadline extended until Feb 16

The telecoms regulator yesterday issued an order for re-registration, giving millions of mobile users another two months to come under the process.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission's (BTRC) deadline for re-registration expires on December 16. But the telecoms watchdog relaxed the deadline following a request of mobile phone operators.
"We received a latter today from BTRC," said a high official of a leading telecoms operator, adding the letter said the deadline is extended until February 16.
Earlier in July BTRC issued an order to Grameenphone, AKTEL, Banglalink, CityCell and Teletalk to re-register customers who bought connections before February 28, 2006. According to mobile phone operators, 10 million customers need to re-register.
But just before five days before the current deadline is to expire, the mobile operators urged the government that the timeframe should be extended as re-registration activities hampered in the Sidr-affected South-West region.
The BTRC's first deadline, October 16, expired with only 25 percent of the affected customers re-registering. This prompted the BTRC to extend the deadline to December 16. But telecoms operators were not satisfied over the rate of re-registration as they said complex documentation process also delays the process.