Bangladesh’s government has confirmed that no illegal or cloned mobile phones will be deactivated within the next 90 days following the official launch of the National Equipment Identity Register (NEIR) on January 1. The clarification came from Faez Ahmad Tayyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, who addressed public confusion over multiple phone registrations under single national IDs.

Tayyeb explained that the NEIR system, which links all mobile devices’ IMEI numbers to a national database, received over three billion data sets from operators, including historical records. This caused some users’ national IDs to show an unusually high number of active devices. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and mobile operators are jointly working to archive old data and display only currently active handsets. He also noted that the system had been initially developed in 2021 and recently upgraded with additional features.

According to the government, the NEIR will help identify stolen and illegal phones, raise public awareness, and allow citizens to monitor SIM and device usage linked to their national IDs, enhancing transparency and security in mobile communications.