Communications Authority of Kenya Director General, Ezra Chiloba, has disallowed any extension for SIM card registration in a press release dated October 17, 2022.
Chiloba highlighted that he offered the telecommunications businesses a 60-day window to guarantee that all of their consumers complied with the new directive.
“On 15th April this year, the authority extended the deadline for updating sim card registration details by a further six months to give mobile operators and subscribers sufficient time to comply.”
Ezra Chiloba clarified that the businesses have a 60-day window to take action against people who haven’t complied by cutting off particular services like voice or data.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the 60 days is not an extension, but a period for the mobile operators to take certain actions, including denial of service, to prompt further compliance. These steps include graduated denial of service to SIM card holders not duly registered and eventual deactivation. The services to be affected by this action include voice, SMS, data, and mobile banking services.”
Read: CA Dismisses Possibility of SIM Registration Extension
The Communications Authority also added that over the period, they had witnessed major improvement in compliance levels by the Mobile Operators. In the last eight months, they have seen Safaricom’s compliance levels move from 52 percent to 93 percent, while Airtel moved from 42 percent to 81.2 percent.
Many mobile phone users lamented the telecoms’ withdrawal of various services beyond the Saturday midnight deadline after neglecting to register their sim cards. Among the services they were unable to utilize include data, sending text messages as well as accessing their mobile money services.
Read:15 Million SIM Cards Face Switch Off Ahead Of Registration Deadline
The registration deadline was initially set for April 15 but was extended by 6 months to October 15 after public outcry. The authority says the move is aimed at weeding out the usage of telcos by fraudsters, a trend that has gained momentum in the recent past.
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