Those aged less than 18 years will not be capable of buying mobile phone cards under the new regulations being implemented by the government of Bangladesh.

Home Minister Sahara Khatun stated, "Over 200,000 mobile phone connections have so far been cancelled following allegations of various criminal offences, including extortion, issuance of threats, and other forms of harassment."

Thus far, more than 1.2 million unlisted subscriber identity module (SIM) and removable user identity module (RUIM) cards have been blockaded.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her nephew and legislator Fazle Noor Taposh are among those who recently got threatening SMSes.

Those who are over 18 years of age have to fill their national identity numbers on registration forms to become subscribers.

Curbs were also slapped on getting authority certificates for selling the cards. Appliers for the certificates from service offerer should have secondary school certificates and get through police authentication.

Bangladesh's overall telephone users stood at approx 56 million at the end of January 2010. (With Input from Agencies)