The commission called on all telecoms subscribers that were yet to register their SIM cards, to use the remaining one month period to do so or risk disconnection. Read more..
Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo told THISDAY that the warning became necessary because the commission would not extend the date beyond June 30, which is a month from today.
According to him, the commission had given orders that only registered subscribers should be allowed to enjoy the benefit of porting. "Any SIM that is not registered and has no identity will be denied porting, even if the owner indicates interest to port," Ojobo said.
He added that any SIM card that is not registered could be denied porting to any network.
Although Ojobo warned that any telecoms operator that denies subscribers the opportunity to port numbers would be sanctioned, he however said the provisions in the regulation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) indicated that porting request to any network could be denied if the subscriber had issues of false identity, or the SIM has no identity.
Ojobo insisted that SIM card registration must come to an end by June 30, to enable the commission come out with exact number of registered SIM cards in the country.
Speaking on the importance of SIM card registration, Ojobo said it would not only help in identifying SIM card carriers, but would also help in curbing crime rates in the country.
"A situation where people receive threat calls from unknown persons or receive calls from kidnappers who are asking for ransom, without any trace to their identities, will be a thing of the past, immediately we conclude on SIM card registration," Ojobo said.
NCC, had in 2010, commissioned telecoms operators to carryout SIM card registration across networks, but in March 2011, the NCC flagged off SIM card registration, following the delay by telecoms operators to conclude the exercise in good time.
The commission went ahead to recruit seven consultants and tasked them with the responsibility of carrying out and completing the SIM card registration exercise in the six geopolitical zones within a six months period. While NCC consultants were involved in SIM card registration, the commission allowed all telecoms operators to continue in their capacities with the SIM card registration.
The September 30, 2011date, which NCC gave as the deadline for the completion of the exercise was however, not feasible, as the commission's consultants could not conclude the exercise at the stipulated date, a situation that compelled NCC to extend the exercise indefinitely.
Some Nigerians took advantage of the indefinite extension of SIM registration exercise to buy bulk SIM cards, register them in fictitious names and were selling them on the streets as pre-registered SIM cards. NCC however raided some of them in different states and arrested several people involved in the act. Few weeks ago the commission fined some telecoms operators for allowing their SIMs to be sold as unregistered SIMs.
But early this month, NCC announced it would end SIM card registration by June 30 this year, and warned that any unregistered SIM would be disconnected.
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