Telcos Issue Joint Statement on Re-Verification of SIMs

Mobile phone companies, who have joined hands to be on the same page, have reiterated their commitment towards national security by initiating the biometric re-verification process of around 103 million mobile phone SIMs, said a joint statement issued by all five cellular operators in Pakistan.

Currently the re-verification process is being performed by all the 5 cellular mobile operators – namely Mobilink, Telenor Pakistan, Ufone, Zong and Warid through Biometric Verification System (BVS) across the country.

Also Read: Everything You Need to know About SIM Re-Verification!

Telcos, in their statement, said that they have always worked with the government and provided all requisite support in implementing all measures taken to facilitate data verification exercises in the past as well including the 668 process back in 2009, 789 verification process in 2011 and Biometric Verification System (BVS) introduced in 2014.

Mobile phone companies said that they have so far invested USD 25 million on the provision of around 60,000 BVS devices and PKR 22 billion on previous mandatory verification processes with another significant amount to be spent on this re-verification exercise to enhance the availability of these BVS devices across Pakistan.

Telecom companies, with this joint statement, want to make a clear impression about their efforts for verification of data and to make sure that a blame for facilitating terrorism due to un-verified SIMs is put to an ultimate end

The cellular industry has urged all its valued customers to perform their national duty by re-verifying their mobile phone SIMs as per the schedule announced by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Ministry of Interior.

The industry has also sought government’s support to meet the extremely challenging task by ensuring cooperation of law enforcement agencies/local authorities, provision of security at service centers/franchise and BVS retailers across the country where re-verification process is underway etc.

Also Read: PTA Issues Official SOPs for SIM-Reverification

Despite having reservations on the execution plan for this huge exercise, the Industry as always has agreed to the requirement of the GoP (under the National Action Plan) for carrying out SIMs re-verification through BVS within 90 days and will put its best efforts to try and complete this herculean task within the stipulated timeframe.

Telcos urged the government to recognize industry’s volunteered support towards measures to maintain National Security in view of the prevalent law and order situation

Moreover, the statement said, the industry has also played a remarkable role through its corporate responsibility initiatives in overall social development as well as in emergency situations in the country.

The cellular industry has always been at the forefront in terms of cooperation with the government and security agencies in national security matters, and will continue its efforts in light of the prevailing security situation.

Telcos Contribution Towards National Economy

Joint statement also includes some economic indicators to show telcos’ contribution towards the economy.

During the last three years, the telecom sector was contributing an average of Rs. 124.8 billion annually to the national exchequer in terms of taxes, regulatory fees, initial and annual license fees, activation tax, and other charges.

During FY2014, telecom sector has contributed an all-time high Rs. 243.84 billion, registering a growth of 95.8% over the last year.

This is in addition to the billions paid as other fees and levies to the federal and provincial governments and their concerned authorities.

004_Telecom_Contribution

Investments by Telecom Companies

During FY2014, cellular mobile operators have invested US$ 1,789.7 million on account of acquiring 3G and 4G spectrums and deployment of advanced telecommunication networks.

The overall telecom investment reached US$1,815 million in FY2014; an almost three times increase from the level of US$600 million last year.

Almost half of telecom investment was in the form of FDI i.e. telecom sector attracted over US$903 million of FDI in FY2014, 34.2% of the total FDI received by Pakistan in that period. The industry has also created around 1.4M direct and indirect jobs.

005_Telecom_Investments

Moreover, the industry has also played a remarkable role through its corporate responsibility initiatives in overall social development as well as in emergency situations in the country. The cellular industry has always been at the forefront in terms of cooperation with the government and security agencies in national security matters, and will continue its efforts in light of the prevailing security situation.


  • 243.84 Billion Rs. so far contributed to national treasury, Question is, where did all that money go??? Oh Wait, Metro Zindabad.

    • this shows ur mentality. 243 billions mobile tax gya to wo metro mai gya… petrol pe 200 billions gae to wo metro mai gae.. bijli pe 10 billions gae to wo metro mai gae… or pata nh kia kia…Bhai to is tarah to metro 1000 billions mai bana hoga…pehle economics parhlo thori si k govt revenue kahan kahan se generate hote hain or kahan kahan kharch hote hain…sirf metro pe he kharch nh hoti har cheez..phir comment karna political basis pe.. mai N League ka nhi.. Karachi se hoon..mashwara hai.. politics mai itna mat giro bhae k infrastructure projects ko ganda kiye jao ..

      • Dearest Brother, I myself am student of Business Administration also know few small basics of Economics and Governmental Treasury as well. I here, used Metro Zindabad as a metaphor implicating ignorance of our Government in helping the middle and poor classes of country, but infact, they are busy uplifting their personal businesses with Governmental contracts. You, yourself tell me, Is the middle and poor class are happy with our Government ???

        • What does metro do at all…? A reasonable source of transport for middle and lower class to travel. Why people compare big cities with smaller one. Their needs are different in whole world. We people like to comment on what else we like/dislike…

          • reasonable source of transport, i think you should travel inmetro…
            One has to be in line, then wait to miss 5-10 buses even then it’s difficult to stand in the door of the metro bus…

            • On the other hand. Whenever i visited lahore. I had to travel into Auto by paying hundreds of rupee as fare…so if people rush towards metro. Then its fine

      • When he said “metro”, he is indirectly referring to the “Corrupt Politicans” and their “pockets”. All your tax money which FBR collects, are hardly being spent on people’s relief or betterment. (A Rs.10 worth of thing is being sold at Rs.100; and people are going all Goo Goo Gaa Gaa over it i.e. IGNORANTS, ILLITERATE POS’)

  • Mera swal ye ha ka kuch afrad ki uglue ki line mit gai hai to re verification ka lia wo ki kare

  • Can you guys suggest some good hosting provider? I need the one with secure environment.

  • I want to share my Biometric Verification process of all sims. First of all, let me clear that small franchises, retailers were unable reverify the numbers and apologized that their systems are not ready/upgraded/down. Then I went to Bait-ul-Mukarram for sales and customer center of each connection. It seemed that whole karachi came to verification of their sims. Only Ufone and Zong facilitated their customers fastly and rapidly especially Ufone gave extra comfort to old/aged peoples and one representative were just alloted to help people about their problems. Warid people’s were ok. But the pathetic one’s were the mobilink people. They were rude with many people (I noticed personally) and morever they were the only operator charging Rs 10 per verification.

    Secondly lot of people were amazed that 04 04 05 05 number were against their NICs. So not only reverification works but lot of connections disowned by the people.

    All and all good effort by Telecos and they are offering reverification services till 8pm night.

      • i went at 8 pm yesterday night, zong was swift as in only one person was there, mobilink has a table setup with a device and a person, he took some time not only that he was like aap ka cnic 2004 ka hey problem aree hey … i was like buddy i just came from zong, than he said ok [put your left thumb and says ok its accepted now.

        • Well matter of cnic before 2004-5 is bit more technical. Nadra was using older technology then. Majority of biometrics captured were only 4 x biometrics and were unable to be verified with current standard being used. If some company refuses to verify cnic of said period then they are OK. And if some one succeeded in verifying then it is ok too…we at nadra are updating such records with Free special token. And for customer service level. It depends upon organizational culture etc.

          • ok so should i go for the newer chip based cnic? not only it will fix any 2004/5 issue but ill be upgraded to newest. right?

            • It is ur choice…either you choose biometric upgrade via free token or go for smart card with complete data update…

  • I am not in Pakistan for next 5 or 6 months. but i just received today one message from ufone that i have to reverify my sim with biometric system. how can i do when im not in country? I am afraid of my number getting blocked

    • Your sim will be blocked after the deadline but you cant get your sim verified and get it activated uptill 3 months after it is blocked. So your sim will get blocked but you’ll be able to get it active again once you come back

  • Ammir, please write something about problem faced by user during verification process.
    Today I went to Mobilink Office and around 400 people were gathered and mobilink team was saying that NADAR Verification system is down. WTF

  • First of all the question is :, how much is”
    “TELECOS CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS PAK. TERRORISM” The answer is thousands of deaths of Pakistanis by use of unauthorized use of-mobile phones . I ask, can all this money pay for the lives of innocent Pakistanis. All this is due to ruthless sale and distribution of SIMS due to greed of these TELECONS. . We were living well without these death traps. Well, if these greedy TELECONS were a little careful and would have taken measures to check and verify each person, they sell the SIM, such criminal use can be diminished to half.. In Saudi ARABIA and other GCC countries SIMs are sold to tourists and visitors ( copy of passports are taken) but it has 24 hrs time before the SIM is activated. The personal data is checked in database and SIM is activated. IF in doubt the SIM is not activated at all no matter what amount the subscriber has paid. PTA is also responsible as much as the TELCOS. It is PTA’s fault that they were sleeping like our politicians till ” some one” put their foot down recently.56,000 PAKISTANIS HAVE DIED AND I BELIEVE AT LEAST 80% HAVE DIED DUE TO UN AUTHORIZED USE OF SIMs.
    So, brothers , no amount of money paid to exchequer can justify a single death due to negligence in misuse of a SIM whatsoever post paid or prepaid.

  • The solution to terrorism is court martial of our Generals .
    the day you will start terminating them on their in competencies ,there will be peace everywhere even if sim is not on your name at all

  • i have mobilink sim, is there is any sms code to determine Registered name , as Telenor has this service…

  • Dear industry! You are whining about billions spent on verification processes. Yeah right. Who made commissions in the process? And then, why do you forget trillions you made by flouting the law? Your claims are deplorable. Please be ashamed at least now.
    In modern world, you would have been banned with executives jailed or tried in military courts.

  • We all shall see what PTA & NADRA doing with the only profitable industry giving benefit to common people. I saw long queues everywhere because NADRA’s system is unable to handle this load. I don’t why government first fix it’s own house and then push industry to do the rest. The money and tax you people are debating will not come any further if things don’t improve…

  • Mobilink participation is pathetic in this activity…. most of the time they said the NADRA link is not working…. on other hand all companies except of Mobilink disowned my sims properly but Mobilink tou sirf zleel ker raha hai :(


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