Over 650,000 subscribers locked out of mobile phone services

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) says it has switched off 656,091 subscribers from mobile phone services as they have failed to register their SIM cards biometrically.

Speaking to one of the local radio stations, TCRA Director General Mr James Kilaba said the exercise will be conducted in phases. According to him, in the second phase 318, 950 subscribers risk being blocked from telecommunication services.

Mr Kilaba said the first group of subscribers, whose lines were switched off at around 10pm were 656,091, who possess voter registration cards but they haven’t registered.

According to him, the second group, who were blocked are those, who registered their lines by using their national identification cards before the exercise wass rolled out.

“We are switching off the lines which haven’t been biometrically registered in phases due to technicalities…you can’t just switch off 10 million subscribers at once,” said Mr Kilaba.