Sim Registration: NCC Grants Operators ‘First Level’ Option

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has accepted telecom operators as first level option instead of consultants to carry out the process of Sim card registration of telecom subscribers, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now revealed.
This is sequel to NCC’s directive to both Global System for Mobile communications and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators to begin the registration of subscribers on their network.
It would also be recalled that Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (Atcon) and the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton) have kicked against the appointment of consultants for the Sim card registration.
Atcon and Alton said that operators be allowed as a first option to register their own subscribers.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations revealed that some operators especially CDMA operators have already notified their subscribers through short message service (SMS) to get ready for the exercise.
With SIM card registration, the authorized dealer who sells Sim card, must get security details of every buyer and forward such details to the operating company who must register the details against the Sim card before activating it.
The whole essence is to enable telecom operators link every Sim card number to the identity of the actual owner.
If there is a threat call from a particular Sim card number for instance, chances are that the identity of the owner of the Sim card could be traced.
NCC, telecoms regulator, had in February moved the deadline for Sim card registration from March 1 to May 1 giving mobile time to prepare for a government-imposed programme to register new Sim cards issued to mobile-phone users.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek had exclusively reported that telcos have started to recruit temporary staff from different regions of the country in preparation for the take off of the exercise.
NCC said the postponement became necessary following the discovery that large quantities of Sim cards with instant activation features, which were already distributed by the service providers before the earlier announcement, would not have been cleared out before March 1. The law requires mobile-phone subscribers to provide details such as fingerprints and photographs of themselves.