Dhaka: State Minister for Posts and TelecommunicationsTarana Halim on Saturday said service booths, run by state-owned mobile operator Teletalk, will be set up at Rohingya camps to facilitate their communication, but they will not be provided with SIM cards.
The work to set up Teletalk booths will start within three days at the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, she said after a meeting at Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) office on control and monitoring of SIM cards use by Rohingyas.
“2G network will be provided to the Rohingya refugees to facilitate their communication inside Bangladesh at minimum charges,” Tarana said.
“We've come to know that some Rohingyas are already using Bangladeshi SIM cards as local people have sold those to them…this is a punishable offence,” she said.
The government will operate mobile courts against the offenders and the mobile operators will also be fined if found involved in such acts, Tarana added.
“We've brought the use of mobile phones under a system by biometric registration to prevent all kinds of criminal activities.” she said.
Representatives and top officials of BTRC, Home Ministry, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) were also present at the meeting.unb
