Unregistered SIM cards blocked since yesterday – Mozambique

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Unregistered SIM cards blocked since yesterday – Mozambique

3:23 CAT | 02 Dec 2016

Noticias

After several extensions of the deadline for registering all mobile phone numbers, and a year after the Council of Ministers approved decree no. 18/2015, of August 28 the National Communications Institute of Mozambique (INCM) yesterday authorised the complete blocking of all unregistered numbers.

To ensure compliance, the institution will monitor operators from 5 December, and they will be fined if they do not bar calls and messages from unregistered numbers.

The measure also covers improperly registered numbers. “On December 5, we will consult operators databases, and if contacts are found to be unregistered, mobile operators will be sanctioned,” Mozambican Information Agency (AIM) quotes INCM director Américo Muchanga as saying.

Once the numbers are blocked, the holders must regularise their situation with the operators. Even yesterday, mobile companies were still registering floods of customers who feared seeing their phones cut off, queuing in fatigue and despair at the slowness of service.

“We’ve dropped work to be here. It’s a great shame what is happening, because they could easily facilitate the process by using social networks where we could send our data,” one of the customers said.

The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that some mobile phone companies have subscribers whose registration has not yet been entered into their databases. Other customers complain about system failures causing them to register their numbers more than once. As Aida Lourenço told AIM: “This is the third time I have registered my SIM card and every time my number was blocked shortly afterwards.”

Muchanga said that during the registration period, the INCM monitored operators closely through monthly meetings, and provided technical support whenever requested.

Source: O País