UCC gives telecoms ultimatum on sim cards

Nov 02, 2015

UGANDA Communications Commission has directed all telecom companies to deactivate all unregistered sim cards before 30th November or else face hefty fines

By Benon Nsubuga 

UGANDA Communications Commission has directed all telecom companies to deactivate all unregistered sim cards before 30th November or else face hefty fines. 

UCC has also threatened to cancel the operating licences of telecom companies which fail to cooperate.

 The UCC Executive Director Eng. Godffrey Mutabaazi warned telecom companies have to heed to the latest directive within a month or face closure.

 “The law requires us to register all sim cards. Telecom companies cannot say no, they don’t have that mandate. We shall charge them a percentage of their gross annual revenue or go ahead and revoke their licenses” Mutabaazi said.

 In October 2013, the government introduced sim card registration and all telecom companies were ordered to deactivate all unregistered cards before the end of 2013.

However there are a number of unregistered sim cards in operation since the government issued the directive, even with the deadline being extended on several occasions.

 

Sim card trouble in Nigeria

 

South Africa's bourse briefly suspended trading in telecoms firm MTN Group on Monday, after the stock fell as much as 8 percent as Africa's largest mobile telecoms operator battles to reduce a $5.2 billion fine it faces in Nigeria.

The stock has fallen more than 25 percent in the past seven sessions, wiping in excess of 60 billion rand ($4.4 billion) off its market value, after the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) imposed the fine last week for failure to cut off unregistered users.

After trading resumed hours later, MTN shares were down 5.9 percent at 148.51 rand at 1200 GMT. They earlier touched a three-year low of 142.50 rand.

One trader said the stock tumbled due to speculation the company had agreed to pay the fine, which is equivalent to almost a quarter of Nigeria's 2015 budget of $22 billion and would wipe out more than two years of MTN's annual profits.

"There has been some speculation that the company has agreed to pay the fine, but we really want to hear it from the company itself," said Afrifocus Securities portfolio manager, Ferdi Heyneke.

MTN said the firm was still in talks with Nigerian authorities about the fine.

"The company reiterates that engagements with the Nigerian authorities are continuing," MTN said in statement, confirming a Reuters report earlier.

MTN has been in talks with the Nigerian presidency, internal security agency and the NCC to resolve the matter, according to a regulatory source. MTN Chief Executive Sifiso Dabengwa flew to Abuja to make what three sources familiar with the matter said was an attempt have the penalty reduced.

NCC on Friday gave MTN two weeks to pay the fine.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Nigeria has been pushing the industry to have every SIM card registered on worries that unregistered SIM cards were being used for criminal activity in a country facing Islamic militant group Boko Haram's insurgency.

It was unclear what would happen to MTN, whose Nigerian licence is up for renewal in 2016, if the company fails to pay the fine, but NCC's powers include revoking licences.

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