The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) plans to carry out a nationwide programme to enable the public to confirm the registration of their mobile SIM cards with their relevant mobile network operator (MNO). In a brief statement, the government confirmed that phase one of the programme will take place in the Kandy district between 13 November and 18 November, and to this end, it has requested members of the public to verify their mobile SIM card and registered companies by dialling #132# and obtaining the relevant details. Further, the government has warned that anyone who fails to update their mobile SIM card registrations may find themselves liable in the event that their mobile number is eventually used for nefarious activities.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that in August 2017 the TRCSL issued a Presidential Directive requesting that network operators introduce better SIM registration schemes to reduce the problem of SIM-based fraud and crime. At the time the regulator called on the incumbents to register SIM cards with ‘a duly filled application form and a photocopy of the National Identity Card of the owner’ by order of the minister, under the Telecommunications Act. No 25 of 1991, and ‘to assign the authority of implementing this process to the TRCSL’. No mention was made, however, of any punitive steps that could be taken if any operator failed to comply with the request.