From January next year, one person will be allowed to register and use a maximum of five personal SIM cards under a single national ID (NID), according to a decision by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

Cost for mobile phone use will increase in the next fiscal as Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed to hike the duty on SIM card-related services to 5 percent.

The government decides to allow a person to register maximum 20 cellular phone SIM cards against his/her national identity card, says State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim.

Telecom operators will sign deals with the Election Commission today to get access to the national identification database to introduce biometric registration system for new SIM cards.

Mobile phone users, who would fail to re-register their numbers by November 15, will have their numbers blocked, the telecom division says.