Mobile operators face trouble to provide service for EC's NID server problem

People are facing problem in purchasing SIMs (Subscriber Identification Module) and get other services as mobile phone operators can not verify the authenticity of the buyer's information due to difficulty in accessing to National Identification Number (NID) database server at the Election Commission (EC).

On June 19, the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh sent a letter to the EC requesting to resolve the issue.

"You are aware that, all the four mobile network operators (MNOs) are connected with Election Commission database server for various SIM related services. It is important to ensure 24/7 connectivity and access to the EC server," the letter read.

"We have been observing frequent outage of the EC server for that regular SIM related services of MNOS are hampered. For the last 18 hours and so, we are not being able to access to the server."

"We would like to request you to consider the matter with highest priority so that, these kind of outage issues are resolved," it said.

The letter signed by AMOB Secretary General Lt Col (retd) Zulfikar informed the EC about total outage status and its impact for last few months.

According to AMTOB, there was one outage in February for 0.5 hour, 1 outage in March for 1.58 hours, 2 outages in May for 31.67 hours.

The outage affected SIM activation, SIM replacement, mobile number portability,  transfer of ownership, roaming activation SIM deactivation or deregistration, pre to post-paid migration and other biometric verification related services.

For the current outage, over 24 hours passed, but the server hasn't been restored.

Officials of Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink confirmed that problems in working for NID server outage.

The Daily Star visited some SIM selling points in Mirpur this morning and the agents of these points said they have not been able to sell SIM for over 24 hours.

An official of an operator said their customers are suffering due to the server outage.   

"Now as of 11 am today, the clients haven't been able to get our SIM and related service for over 34 hours. Millions of customers are suffering," he said.

The officials of all private operators –Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink – confirmed the matter to The Daily Star.

Election Commission NID wing Director General AKM Humayun Kabir said that some maintenance working is going on and many facing problem in getting access to the server.

"Everything will be settled by today" he hoped.

He, however, refused to make comments whether the server was down consistently for the last two-three days and what kind of work was going on.