Sri Lanka’s TRCSL asks operators to better regulate SIMs

Industry watchdog the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has issued a Presidential Directive requesting that mobile network operators (MNOs) introduce better SIM registration schemes to reduce the problem of SIM-based fraud and crime in the country, according to a statement from Cabinet Spokesman and Minister, Gayantha Karunathilaka. The TRCSL has called on domestic MNOs 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’. Gayantha Karunathilaka notes that there are currently a sizeable number of SIMs active on operators’ networks that were not issued in accordance with the TRCSL’s wishes vis-a-vis proper documentation and the authorities are now calling on MNOs to redress this by registering SIMs properly to help prevent crimes and fraud relating to their use, and for ‘public security’. No mention was made, however, of any punitive steps that could be taken if any MNOs fail to comply with the request.