Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is going to disconnect network for illegal, cloned and unregistered cell phones.

The telecom regulator is set to reopen the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number database soon to identify cell phones with fake IMEI numbers or imported illegally, a BTRC official said.

On Wednesday (February 26), the commission issued a circular in this regard again and warned the mobile users and buyers of the country asking them to check whether their cell phone sets’ IMEI numbers are registered with BTRC before purchasing it.

Earlier on July 29 last year, the operator, in another circular, announced that it would reopen the IMEI number database to identify illegal, cloned and unregistered cell phones.

According to the circular, those phones, which can’t be found in the database, were set to be identified as the cloned and unregistered mobile phones.

The BRTC authorities were supposed to disconnect the cell phones through the database, which usually saves individual IMEI numbers with their associated SIM and national identity card numbers.

The decision was set to come into effect from August 1 last year but was not implemented.

BTRC suggested the common people to dial *#06# from the new handsets while purchasing them to be sure whether they are real or not.

The circular informed that the purchasers will be able to get the 15-digit IMEI number by dialing *#06# from the handsets.