EC's biometric verification system restored after 55 hours

The Election Commission's biometric verification system--which is needed for selling mobile phone connections--has become active again after around 55 hours.

Mobile network operators said the service restored at around at 3am today. The problem started at around 8:30pm on June 18.

Earlier, people have not been able to purchase SIMs and related services over the last two days as mobile phone operators have been unable to verify buyer's information.

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

Such an outage affected SIM activation, replacement and other biometric verification-related services, said officials of the telecom operators.

Some maintenance works are ongoing and many are facing problems in getting access to the server, said AKM Humayun Kabir, director general for the national identity wing at the EC, earlier yesterday.

According to technology experts, experiencing such a prolonged outage is improbable and reflects unprofessionalism.