Persons who are yet to commence re-registration of their SIM cards or yet to fully complete the process will begin to experience interruptions in their service till the end of the month.
Such users should expect to finally be blocked by the end of the month if they fail to do so before the deadline.
This forms part of a phased punitive measure by the National Communications Authority to get users to have their SIM cards registered with the Ghana Card.
In a recent statement by the National Communications Authority, it appears the agency is bent on sticking to the new deadline, as it has instructed Mobile Network Operators to begin rolling out sanctions against persons who are yet to undergo the process and those who have not completed the final stage.
It stated that effective 5th September 2022, all outgoing calls of all of such users must be rerouted to an Interactive Voice Response for a message to be played before all calls go through every day.
It also added that outgoing calls and Data Services for a sequential batch of numbers will be blocked for 48 hours, 2 days once a week on rotational bases.
It however added that the measure would exclude blocking of SMS to give defaulting subscribers the opportunity to initiate registration if they so which.
It also stated that subscribers who fully register their SIM Cards within the period they have been blocked will only be unblocked by their operators after 48 hours to avoid the MNOs tampering with their systems intermittently.
Meanwhile, a letter sighted by Citi Business News from the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has raised some concerns about the directive from the NCA.
It stated that “prior to the receipt of the Authority’s letter, all discussions were focused on barring/blocking of outgoing voice calls only, in line with which the Chamber’s members had adequately prepared to implement the measure in this regard and on subscribers who are yet to complete Stage 1; as discussions have been limited to this category of subscribers.”
It added that “As of September 3, 2022, customers had not been given any notice of the barring/ blocking of data service for 48 hours and outgoing calls from September 5, 2022, stressing that implementing these measures without adequate notice to customers will be a breach of our members’ standard license notice period, terms and conditions of service and could lead to customer backlash and reputation issues.”
On the 31st of July, the Government extended the deadline for the SIM card re-registration to 30th September 2022. The government had initially set July 31 as the deadline for all persons to re-register their SIM cards with their Ghana Cards.
Persons who failed to comply with the directive would have had their SIM cards deactivated.
The regulations are to help law enforcement agencies to identify SIM card owners, track criminals who use phones for illegal activities, curb phone theft, hate text messaging, mobile fraud activities, and SIM Box fraud.
