No extension of Sim card registration deadline, says Kamwelwe

Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday said it will not extend the December 31 deadline for the registration of Sim cards.

Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, Isack Kamwelwe said this on the sidelines of a meeting on Pan African Coastal Union (PAPU).

He said this barely a few days after Airtel Tanzania threw its subscribers into confusion after those who are yet to be registered biometrically failed to place calls.

The subscribers, however, were able to send and receive messages, transact through Mobile Money, something they say was an inconvenienceqor them.

A section of the customers reported that they received sms on Wednesday informing them that they would be switched off on Thursday because they were not biometrically registered.

The telcom’s action comes before the December 31 official deadline put by Tanzania Communication and Regulatory authority.

In response to a question on the matter, Kamwelwe said the Airtel incident was aimed to wake up Tanzanians to understand the importance of registering their simcards.

Stressing that all unregistered lines will be switched off on December 31.

“We are doing this to protect Tanzanians, there are people owning more than 30 sim lines to defraid fellow Tanzanians,” he said.

Airtel’s call center admitted that they had blocked the Sim cards and had sent messages to subscribers who are yet to register indicating they had suspended the services, saying that they were, however,

trying to rectify the anomaly.

Figures released on December 13, 2019, by the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), show that more than 50 per cent (7,185,528) of Airtel Tanzania’s subscribers are yet to register biometrically.

TCRA has, however, assured the public that the law has not mandated service providers to switch off Sim cards without the regulator’s nod.

TCRA spokesperson, Semu Mwakiyanjala, said this when responding to The Citizen’s query after a section of the public complained of not being able to place calls.

In response, he said it was imperative that those affected communicate with the service provider because it could be a technical hitch related to the broadband backbone grid.

“If the people are not receiving network they should communicate with the relevant company to know the problem before reaching any conclusions,” he said.

Recently TCRA reported that with only 18 days left before the end of the biometric registration of SIM cards, only 42 per cent SIM cards in operation had been register.

The reported that there are 21.7 million SIM cards that are yet registered out of over 47 million SIM cards, calling on public to use the remaining days to register their SIM cards.

Out of the seven telecom providers none is yet to reach 50 per cent registration therefore standing a risk of losing out on transactions with Vodacom Tanzania having the biggest number.

The unregistered SIM cards are as follows: Airtel Tanzania (7,185,528), Tigo (6,618, 007), Smile (13,333),( TTCL 825,406), Viattel (3,012,237), Vodacom (9,154,114) and Zantel (573,891)

TCRA Director General James Kilaba said the biometric registration are very open including maintain security and to protect the users with misuse of mobile phones.

“This exercise started in May, hopeful people were aware so on December 31 it will the last day for people to use SIM cards which have not been registered biometrically. So I strongly urge Tanzanians to use these remaining days,” he said