 |
| SIM cards |
If the Nigerian Communications Commission were to enforce a mandatory disconnection of all unregistered SIM cards in Nigeria, at least 40 percent of the active lines across the networks will get taken out. That’s a lot of lines.
The somewhat good news is that there doesn’t appear to be an actual turnoff date for unregistered SIM cards. The bad news is that it could happen next month, next week or even tomorrow. Nobody knows when, and beyond threatening telcos with hefty fines for failure to deactivate unregistered SIM cards, the NCC has not publicly announced any deadline.
The uncertainty is part of the problem. Two weeks ago, The Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) petitioned the NCC to extend this deadline. Conspicuously absent in the Daily Times report of this plea is said deadline’s date.
TechCabal recently hosted a “Hangout” on Blab to discuss the issue with three people who know what they are talking about. Although Emeka Okoye couldn’t join us in the end, Oo Nwoye and Tim Akinbo helped us understand a lot of what is going on. They didn’t quite agree in some places, but both of them made very astute points.
Oo thinks that the execution of the SIM registration exercise was sloppy.
Comments
Post a Comment