SIM disconnection: Subscribers seek 90 days extension

[Mirror]

Nigeria's phone users, under the auspices of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), yesterday appealed to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) not to go ahead with the latter's plan to disconnect unregistered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

The subscribers are asking the commission to extend the deadline given to defaulting phone users by additional three months during which they are allowed to receive only calls, instead of being totally shut out of telecoms services.

The NCC had, on May 10, announced a June 30, 2013 deadline to begin disconnection of all unregistered SIM cards.

NCC Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said: "From June 30, 2013, all unregistered SIM cards will be barred from the telecoms service."

Ojobo also stressed that failure to do the needful by existing subscribers would lead to denial of service by the respective operator for which such an operator must comply.

But Speaking with National Mirror, NATCOMS President, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said while initial extension of the exercise by the NCC was commendable, serious concerns arose in the last three weeks with the avalanche of reports and issues raised by telecoms subscribers about the planned disconnection.

He said: "During the SIM registration exercise, some Umbrella SIM registration agents were not collecting the full details needed because of the rush by the agents to register as many subscribers so as get paid big.

"Some registration agents, during the active registration period, asked subscribers to pay N100, a situation that discouraged subscribers.

"Some umbrella SIM registration agents even when they are agents of a particular network operator, collect other operators' SIM cards for registration in order to shore up the number of SIM cards they register daily.

"Some umbrella SIM registration agents copy their daily registered subscribers and give to their colleagues in business as some form of 'help'."

Ogunabjo said if all these issues were not considered by the NCC, a lot of telecoms subscribers would be locked out due to no fault of theirs as they think they have registered their SIM cards.

But Ojobo said: "There will be no extension for this. SIM registration has been on for two years now. Come June 30, all unregistered SIMs will be disconnected."

He, however, advised subscribers to make efforts to know what their registration status was if they had any doubts.

Ojobo said: "Subscribers can send 'REG' to 746 to confirm if their SIMs have been registered or not."

National Mirror

[Folami David]

That's the right thing for the subscribers to do. I don't even know why they brought up this sim disconnection of thing sef...