Now only official service offices of mobile phone companies in Tajikistan have the right to sell SIM cards.
“A number of violations have been revealed in activities of dealer centers, and therefore, it has been decided that SIM cards should be sold only through the official service offices of the mobile phone companies,” a source at the communications service agency told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Under government’s decree of 2016 on rules and requirements for connecting to the electrical communication network and rendering services related to them, SIM cards should be sold only upon presentation of a passport. Foreign nationals can buy SIM cards only in official offices,” the source said.
Meanwhile, employees of dealer centers were selling SIM cards both to Tajik nationals and foreign citizens without asking for identity cards, the source added.
Recall, the Tajik government last year passed a resolution requiring all mobile operators in Tajikistan to reregister all SIM cards already in circulation.
Fears of terrorism have reportedly prompted new communications laws in Tajikistan.
In December 2915, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) endorsed amendments to the country’s communications law that require mobile carriers to register all SIM cards sold, and reregister those already in circulation.
Speaking at the session, Mansourjon Umarov, first deputy head of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), noted that more than 70 percent of active SIM cards had been sold out without producing identification.
“We have information that Taliban militants deployed in areas bordering Tajikistan are actively using Tajik SIM cards,” Umarov said.
In late November 2015, Tajik lawmakers passed legislation allowing the authorities to block the Internet and telephone system during “counterterrorism operations” in the country.
