Kenya’s The Star reports that mobile communications services providers are delaying the process of disconnecting services to unregistered SIM cards in order to offer users an opportunity to still register.
The publication states that anonymous sources have said that operators have begun terminating inactive unregistered SIM numbers. This has resulted in numbers declared to date as having been switched off.
According to a statement, unregistered users can reclaim their numbers by registering with an authorised dealer.
The Star reports that Safaricom, a dominant player within Kenya’s local mobile communications space, declared that it had switched off 800,000 unregistered SIM cards.
Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore, is quoted as saying, “We have been doing our best to update the electronic records after the last minute rush that saw a huge number of customers register their SIMs between the 31st of December 2012 and yesterday. We are refining the switch off process and it will continue into the weekend and those affected by the blocking will be unable to make calls or utilise any of our services until their SIM cards are registered”.
The company is also reported to have registered over eighty percent of its subscriber base.
Meanwhile Telkom Orange stated last week that it had switched off 100,000 unregistered SIM cards from the company’s 1.27 million unregistered subscribers writes The Star.
The publication reports that the CCK (The Communications Commission of Kenya) has revealed that over 6.3 million unregistered SIM cards were still in operation and services are still being accessed.
Staff Writer
