PTA is reportedly planning to lower the number of voice SIMs one person can hold on a single CNIC, while allowing more data SIMs. Nothing is final: PTA officials, as quoted in Pakistani media, say the change was agreed in principle and mobile operators will be consulted first.
At the moment a person can register eight SIMs on one CNIC: at most five for calls and three for mobile data. The officials’ reasoning is that most people use just two or three voice SIMs together, so a smaller cap would make it harder for criminals to collect SIMs under other people’s identities for cybercrime.
The data side would move the other way. PTA is reportedly weighing a higher data SIM cap because 5G is expected to raise demand, and IoT services will need far more SIMs than people do. Devices such as meters, trackers and connected appliances each need their own data connection, which is why a higher data limit is on the table.
If you hold more voice SIMs than a new cap would allow, nothing says yet what would happen to the extra ones. No new figure for either cap has been named, so a check of how many SIMs sit on your CNIC today is the sensible first step.
Separately, PTA issued a public awareness message about biometric data. It asks people to give fingerprints only at an operator’s authorised customer service centre, franchise or approved sales outlet when getting a new SIM or another telecom service, and to ask what exactly the fingerprint is being taken for before handing it over. It also urged them not to share biometric information with unauthorised people or outlets.
