The deadline for consumers and operators to register their SIM cards in Uganda has passed, but some networks remain reluctant to deactivate unregistered SIMs, saying they had not received a second directive.
The deadline for SIM registration was Friday, May 31, having already been extended, but operators have repeatedly complained the lack of national identity cards was holding back the process.
HumanIPO reported last week it had been predicted 20 per cent of mobile users in the country had still not been registered and were at risk of being cut off.
But now the UCC’s executive director, Godfrey Mutabazi, said that lack of identity cards was no excuse arguing that the public had been given 90 days to register themselves and 90 more days for all the captured data to be verified.
“The switch off must begin after the deadline,” Daily Monitor reported Mutabazi as saying. He warned that any networks not complying risked legal penalties.
Some of the telecoms are however claiming the UCC did not give them official communication to switch off the unregistered SIM cards.
Among the companies complaining they have not received further direction from the UCC are MTN Uganda, Smile Telecom, UTL, K2 Telecom and Airtel/Warid.
Justina Ntabgoba, corporate affairs manager at MTN, said: “We are bound by the official directive to switch off all our unregistered SIM card users but UCC has not yet ordered so.”
