Business
Association Charges Subscribers On SIM Registration
President, National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, has urged unregistered mobile phone users to register their lines before the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)’s June 30 deadline.
Ogunbanjo gave this advice in an interview with The Tide source in Lagos, recently.
He said that any subscriber who wished to continue to use his or her line should endeavour to avoid disconnection.
The president alleged that some unscrupulous mobile phone users could be using their unregistered lines to commit atrocities which might render the registration exercise ineffective.
NCC said on May 12 that the decision to end the registration was taken after a meeting between it and service providers.
The registration of SIM cards, which began on March 28, 2011, will end on June 30, and all SIM cards not registered before that date would be barred.
Ogunbanjo described as ample the two years which the NCC gave subscribers to register their phones.
“Sincerely, I remember the registration exercise started two years ago and at that time, the commission gave subscribers six months’ grace, which ended on September 20, 2011.
“Then, at the end of the six months’ grace, the association came out and demanded for 12 months’ extension, to which the NCC agreed.
“However, after the 12 months’ grace had expired, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) also came up with a demand for an extension by nine months.
“Presently, both the nine months and 12 months have expired. This is June, 2013; the registration exercise won’t last forever,” Ogunbanjo observed.
He said that any subscriber, who had yet to register his or her line, should not wait till the deadline before doing so, if there was no ulterior motive.
“Why can’t subscribers, for God’s sake, comply with the NCC’s directive if there is no ulterior motive for choosing not to register?
“NCC is all right, to say by June 30, they will now begin to bar lines without doing registration of their lines,” he said.
However, Ogunbanjo advised the NCC and the service providers to further increase their public awareness campaigns before the deadline.