NCA will not extend SIM card registration

Saturday, June 18, 2011


THE National Communications Authority (NCA) says it will not extend the deadline for the registration of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
It has, therefore, advised subscribers to use the few days left to register or risk losing their numbers by midnight, June 30, 2011, for good.
The NCA has also asked subscribers who are not sure of the proper registration of their SIM cards to text a blank message to short code 400 on all networks for status confirmation or lose their numbers after the June 30 deadline.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the Director of Special Projects at the NCA, Major Emmanuel Owusu-Adanse (retd), said presently about 97 per cent of subscribers had registered to identify with their numbers.
Valid national identification (ID) cards for the registration are international travelling passports, voters ID cards, driving licences, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards and national ID cards.
The registration, which can be done in telecommunication sales outlets, as well as offices of the various service providers, is free.
The director reiterated that while the NCA did not want even one subscriber to suffer loss of his or her number after the June 30 cut-off date, it had no intention of extending the exercise.
He said to get all subscribers to register, all network operators, officers of the NCA, as well as the Information Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Information, had toured the length and breadth of the country sensitising end-users to the relevance of identifying with one’s telephone number, adding that the one-and-a-half-year period used to sensitise subscribers should be enough.
Major Owusu-Adanse said the last 12 weeks of the exercise had been used for verification by the NCA, in collaboration with the ID issuing agencies, to authenticate the data provided registration agents by subscribers.
He added that all telecom operators had been informed of discrepancies that had been unearthed by the verification exercise and instructed to inform subscribers who fell short of the recommended arrangements to correct the wrong.
“We take this opportunity to remind the general public to confirm identification details by simply texting toll free their mobile numbers to short code 400 on all networks or contact their network operators personally for clarification before the deadline of June 30, 2011,” he stated.
He also indicated that the mobile number portability (MNP) facility would be operational by July 1, 2011, adding that persons whose SIM cards were not registered could not enjoy the MNP facility.
Meanwhile, the NCA says it has encouraged the service providers to direct subscribers who claim they do not have any of the five national ID cards valid for the registration on what they (subscribers) can do to maintain the numbers they have been associated with.