More than 1 million SIM cards face deactivation
The deactivation process shall not be postponed past April 30
Mobile service providers in country are in for an excruciating seventy two hours as they rush to register the hordes of unregistered SIM cards currently in circulation.
With time dwindling and the number of unregistered users still high, mobile service providers shall be fined a hefty K50,000 per active unregistered SIM card after April 30.
According to NICTA CEO Mr Charles Punaha, as of last week, about 1 million Digicel users and just over 30,000 Bmobile users had yet to register their SIM cards.
That points to anticipated amounts of K50 billion and K1.5 billion respectively for the afore mentioned mobile service companies should they fail to deactivate these large numbers of SIM cards come Monday.
What is infinitely worse is that should the mobile companies succeed in their deactivation of unregistered SIMs, over 1 million mobile users will cease to exist where telecommunication is concerned.
Thousands of relatives, friends, colleagues and acquaintances will be cut off communication networks pending an answer for something that ultimately is not their fault.
Although these figures are expected to have decreased significantly with the boosted SIM registration efforts of all mobile operator’s this week, NICTA is anticipating amounts that could prove catastrophic for PNG operating mobile service providers and users.
After registering his SIM cards on Monday this week, Minster for Communication, Information Technology and Energy Sam Basil confirmed that no extension would be given for SIM registration and that the K50,000 fine would indeed be exacted on mobile service providers for each unregistered SIM card still in use post – Deactivation day.
Mobile operators have been given ample time to register their SIM cards with the deactivation date extended twice already.
“The deactivation process shall not be postponed past April 30,” said Minister Basil.
NICTA boss Mr Punaha appealed for an extension for people living in quake affected areas of the country on April 9 earlier this month but no concrete answer relating to this appeal was given by Minister Basil.
- Juffa urges education sector to promote blue collar arts & jobs - September 11, 2018
- Student’s body found hanging from lecture complex - August 16, 2018
- More than 1 million SIM cards face deactivation - April 27, 2018
