Source: newsthemegh.com
The National Communications Authority (NCA) has announced that on May 31, 2023, more than 11 million unregistered SIM cards would be deleted.
This also applies to customers who were spared from the current exercise. These people include ambassadors, refugees, and Ghanaians traveling on business.
The rest of the group consists of subscribers who have registered some of their SIMs, Ghana Card holders who have declined to register, and individuals without Ghana Cards.
In a press conference with the media in Accra, NCA Director General Joe Anokye stated, “One of the things to note is that active mass SIM registration for existing SIMs is coming to an end and as mentioned earlier, we have about 11 million SIMs which are yet to begin the registration process. These subscribers have until the end of May 2023 to complete their SIM registration or have their SIMs deactivated from the network.”
He confirmed that the Central SIM registration database’s data security for mobile subscribers is unharmed.
Industry observers have expressed concerns over a few data breaches, but the Authority maintains that the system’s integrity is unaltered.
We want to reassure the public that the SIM Database has not been compromised, according to Mr. Anokye. First off, there hasn’t been any unauthorized access to the SIM Registration database; the stage one process abuses that were found and remedied don’t constitute unauthorized access to the SIM Registration database.
The NCA also provided justification for ordering major industry participant MTN to halt its data zone service.
According to Mr. Joe Anokye, MTN, who has been named a Significant Market Player, violated the law.
“MTN shouldn’t offer cheaper voice, SMS, and data rates. Off-net calls should not be charged by MTN. As of now, MTN has complied with the instruction. However, the MTN data zone bundle, a 24-hour data bundle for the various data allotments, caught the NCA’s attention in January 2023. Market participants voiced their worries, NCA contacted MTN, and the product was examined. We came to the conclusion that the MTN data bundle was the cheapest available and in contravention of the directive. It was instructed to stop the service, he said.