Mobile phone operators ask the communications service agency to postpone the introduction of a new price for SIM cards. They say they need time to prepare their documentations for selling SIM cards at 250 somoni per piece.
Mobile phone operators have applied to the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan and the Antimonopoly Agency asking for postponing the introduction of a new price for SIM cards until November 1.
“We need time to prepare our documentations for selling SIM cards at 250 somoni per piece,” an official source at one of Tajik mobile phone operations told Asia-Plus Thursday afternoon.
According to him, they have not yet received an official reply from the Antimonopoly Agency.
Recall, the cost of a new SIM card in Tajikistan is supposed to rise to 250 somoni from September 1, 2018.
The new tariff has been set for all four cellular companies active in Tajikistan: Babilon-Mobile; Tcell; TT-Mobile (Megafon-Tajikistan); and Tacom (Beeline TM).
In accordance with the approved tariff, the cost of a SIM card is 215 somoni and 35 somoni are put on subscriber’s balance. No payment is collected if you lose your SIM card or it becomes disabled.
Currently, Tajik SIM cards for mobile phone cost practically nothing as subscribers acquire them from cellular companies together with package of services.
According to the communications service agency, the interior ministry has proposed to introduce fee for SIM cards for security reasons. The interior ministry has reportedly proposed to introduce fee for SIM cards in order to enhance responsibility of subscribers for possession of mobile phone number.
6.1 million SIM cards were reportedly reregistered in Tajikistan last year. On average, one cellular company sells up to 300,000 SIM cards per year.
Up to 2016 it was estimated that 70% of active SIM cards had been sold in Tajikistan without producing proper identification. Authorities are worried that unregistered SIM cards are making their way into the hands of terrorists. A campaign to confiscate ‘illegally-sold’ SIM cards was conducted in 2016 and the ban of illegally sold SIM cards is now much stricter enforced.
The government started a second registration or re-registration of all SIM cards in 2016. From November SIM card owners must bring their passport or other official ID documentation and their SIM to one of the cellco’s service centers to register their identity in compliance with the order. All new SIM cards are now legally only given out at the provider stores. This applies to visitors and tourists as well.
Control over the internet tightened in 2016 when laws for blocking of internet and telephone services during so-called 'counterterrorism operations' were introduced. Tajikistan adopted a law prohibiting the use of unidentified SIM cards.
Since 2017, Tajikistan citizens are only allowed to buy up to two SIM cards from one operator. Any additional SIMs per person will be blocked. Parents buying SIMs for their children need to present a birth certificate. In summer 2017 around 20% of all SIM cards in Tajikistan were disconnected, after the users failed to register their personal details.
