The Sind High Court (SHC) has ordered that all new SIMs will be sold after biometric verification of the buyer. In addition to this, the court made it compulsory for the existing mobile SIM holders to undergo biometric verification process.
Installation of Biometric Verification System at the customer sales center was moved by the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) after giving demonstration to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and telecom operators. It was initially expected to be ready for launch by 28th February 2013.
Earlier, the telecom operators were reluctant to have it installed at all their franchises and customer care centers due to the high cost factor.
“An official of a leading telecom operator while commenting on the current situation said, “we are fully ready for the installation of biometric system at our facilities and only waiting for the direction from PTA. The moment we get instruction from the regulator, installation will be done in no time”.
Even though NADRA boasts of its fool proof and efficient biometric verification system, the question lies with the second part of the orders by SHC. With 120 million telecom subscribers (even if we assume 70 million to be unique), how long will it take to verify all of the existing subscribers and that how much load will NADRA servers be able to handle?
The official said, it will be lengthy process and require a proper time for the entire customer base to be re-verified through biometric process.
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