Airtel Zambia’s lack of registration forms has halted the country’s SIM card registration process.
“The shortage of registration forms at registration points was unacceptable and unfortunate,” said Thomas Malama, Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Zambia Information and Communication Technology (ZICTA).
National regulator ZICTA has expressed dissatisfaction with the delays in the government’s plans of sector regulation, saying they are “turning away scores of customers who wanted to register their SIM cards because it had run out of registration forms”.
The operator ended 2012 with 4.6 million subscribers, but the regulator is requiring all network providers to ensure all SIM cards in use are registered to an individual.
“Mobile service providers should assess the number of subscribers they have and provide enough registration forms at every center,” Malama added.
Winner of the 2009 and 2010 Best Customer Service Provider, the network provider was the first to introduce email, SMS and fax into the country.