How many SIMs are registered with your name? You were not able to answer this question exactly but thanks to PTA now your can easily find the number of SIMS registered with your CNIC. write your CNIC number from your cell phone & send it to 668, you will receive a massage showing the number of SIMs registered with your identity for each mobile operator. This is an excellent solution to cope with identity fraud in SIMs registration process from different cellular companies in Pakistan. I must admire this step of PTA, Since one year they are actively working to archive fair data from the mobile subscribers. I believe they have succeeded in this goal. I just checked mine & was surprised to see that there are 9 telenor SIMs registered with my CNIC, I cant wait to contact the nearest Service center of telenor to infrom them about the fake entries with my identity.

Identity fraud in SIM registration process is one of the major problem that is in the scenario since the arrival of telecom companies in Pakistan, I believe telecom companies, government & the users itself are responsible for it, First it is the responsibility of telecom companies to allow only the authorized sales points for the sales & registration of there SIMs (subscribers identity module). They are required to actively monitor the sale points & ensure fair registration from the users. However we can expect them unfair at this, because every company likes to have more subscribers to gain more revenue. So ultimately for achieving this they can try every possible sales channel without caring about the consequence.

Ok! Now turning towards the government which holds a major responsibility in this regard, unfortunatly it seems me that the government was finding it difficult to direct the telecom operators with a fair & strict policy regarding the registration of new SIMs, Before the serious involvement of PTA (Pakistan telecom authority) the sales & registration process of telecom subscribers are not fair, SIMs of different companies were selling without the requirements of proper identity document, that is as easy as finding classifieds from Craigslist. Even a kid can purchase these SIMs from any retailor.

Franchises & the retailors are the great contributors in the occurrence of fake entries, every franchise owner gets a good profit margin on every SIM that is registered & sold in a defined region. They make fake entries for their sales in most of the cases when a buyer didn’t submit their original CNIC with the purchase. Similar is the case with retailers, they get Rs 20 to 30 on each registration form they submit to the franchise for registration, they attach anonymous CNIC with the registration forms that resulted in the fake entry for a particular mobile number. However, PTA has make these things easier now. you can register your SIM directly by calling them from your mobile phone.

Tags: fake registration, identity fraud, Internet, journalism, mobile phone, mobilink, NADRA, online sim registration check, pakistan, PTA, PTCL, sim registration, students, telecom pakistan, telenor, telenor customer services centers, ufone, zong