Blocked Sim cards can still be registered, regulator says
Subscribers whose Sim cards were blocked should report to their respective service providers, the telecommunication authority said yesterday. Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) director general Professor John Nkoma said in Dar es Salaam that such subscribers should contact their operators for registration.
According to him, Sim cards registration exercise will continue for new subscribers and those who have not registered. “I assured subscribers who failed to meet the July 15 deadline for registration that they are allowed to go to their network operators for registration since this is ongoing exercise. The deadline was for non-registered Sim cards,” he emphasised.
His statement follows numerous complaints from Sim cards holders who failed to meet the deadline for mandatory registration. Prof Nkoma told The Citizen that no any subscriber will be affected by the exercise as the authorities had already arranged for the smooth registration of their Sim cards. “Many subscribers are not aware of the directive and those who were aware do not know how to go about it,” he noted.
With the mandatory Sim cards registration in place, the authorised dealers who sell the gadgets would be required to get and forward to service providers, details of every buyer, for them to be registered and activated. “The move will obviously limit their sales as the process seems to be too cumbersome for Tanzanians who are always in haste to get things done,” Prof Nkoma said.
The TCRA boss noted that the exercise would provide a market information database for mobile phones technology in the country, and in turn help in ending market oriented disputes.
He said it would also be easy to trace stolen Sim cards and mobile phone handsets. Zain customer care director, Ms Irene Mlola, urged said Zain’s subscribers to go for registration and activate their Sim cards, ensuring non-registered Sim cards subscribers that they will not be shut out of the network.
“Efforts are in place to ensure that our subscribers are registering their Sim cards and we have warned our dealer against offering unregistered ones,” she said over the telephone yesterday.
Some subscribers are pessimistic on whether the exercise will be well conducted, while others said the country is not ready for it. As many others are of the opinion that the exercise might be marred by corruption, some see the mandatory Sim card registration as an avenue to pilfer government funds.
Source – The Citizen