The National Communications Authority (NCA) has in response to numerous calls from a section of consumers, extended the registration of mobile SIM cards for a period of three months (90 days).
The Authority says the period will be used to mop up all unregistered users. It will also work with the service providers and the relevant authorities to weed out the use of fake ID cards used by some persons to register.
The Mobile Number Portability (NMP) system which allows mobile phone subscribers to switch service providers while retaining their number, has also been pushed to July 7 from an initial July 1 start date.
The decision was taken after a meeting with the Chief Executives Officers of all the telecom companies operating in the country.
The Authority had vowed not to extend the date after giving users close to a year to register. But some consumers and Civil Society groups, notably, Policy think tank Imani Ghana, warned that thousands of mobile phone users would be negatively affected by the deactivation of their SIM cards on July 1, because they had not registered.
They also challenged the legal basis for the NCA’s threatened deactivation of SIM cards without the approval of their owners.
Some mobile phone users had also threatened to sue the Authority if it disconnected them on June 30, when the deadline for registration was to elapse.
The Ghana Telecoms Chamber, the umbrella body representing all all telecom companies operating in the country, also added its voice to the call for an extension. According to the Chamber, the extension was needed to enable them correct anomalies identified with the process.
The NCA however stuck to its guns, threatened to sanction mobile operators who flouted the processes in the registration exercise, and insisted that all subscribers must register in person using valid national identification documents.
Source: Citifmonline.com/Ghana
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