8 °c
London
Thursday, April 15, 2021
No Result
View All Result
FurtherAsia FurtherArabia FurtherBrazil FurtherRussia
FurtherAfrica
  • Countries
    • Angola
    • Botswana
    • Cape Verde
    • DRC
    • Eswatini
    • Ethiopia
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritius
    • Mozambique
    • Namibia
    • Nigeria
    • Rwanda
    • South Africa
    • Tanzania
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  • OpenTalk
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Weekend
  • About
FurtherAfrica
  • Countries
    • Angola
    • Botswana
    • Cape Verde
    • DRC
    • Eswatini
    • Ethiopia
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritius
    • Mozambique
    • Namibia
    • Nigeria
    • Rwanda
    • South Africa
    • Tanzania
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  • OpenTalk
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Weekend
  • About
No Result
View All Result
FurtherAfrica
No Result
View All Result
Home Africa

Mozambique demands end of unregistered SIM cards

FurtherAfrica by FurtherAfrica
July 3, 2019
in Africa, Mozambique, Telecom
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Mozambique demands end of unregistered SIM cards
Share via QRWhatsappShare on FacebookShare on TwitterLinkedInPinteresteMail

The Mozambican Communications Regulatory Authority (Arecom) has given the country’s three mobile phone companies a deadline of ten days to regularise the situation of unregistered SIM cards, according to a report by the independent television station STV.

Arecom accused the three companies (Tmcel, Vodacom and Movitel) of violating the regulations on registering SIM cards which were approved by a government decree of August 2015.

The government has been insisting on registration since 2010, in the wake of the Maputo riots against price increases on 1-2 September that year. It was argued that the rioters had been mobilized through mobile phone text messages, and so, to avoid the abuse of mobile phones for criminal purposes, all SIM cards should be registered.

The phone companies pointed out that registering all the cards was an enormous task and successfully lobbied the government to extend the deadline. Then, as the riots faded from memory, registration seemed less urgent and dropped off the agenda.

But when Carlos Mesquita became Minister of Transport and Communications in January 2015, he renewed the demand for registration. In February 2015, he gave the three companies a month to complete the registration.

Once again, government deadlines proved unrealistic. But in August 2015 the government issued a decree, and threatened companies which failed to register their clients with fines of up to six million meticais (about 126,000 US dollars, at the exchange rate of the time). This time the final deadline, of 1 December 2015, seemed real.

The three mobile phone companies said they had blocked 5.7 million SIM cards whose owners had not registered them by the deadline. They would only be able to use the cards again once they had registered them.

The abuse of mobile phones is not restricted to organizing riots. The criminal gangs involved in the wave of kidnappings that have rocked Mozambican cities since late 2011 have used mobile phones to contact their victims’ relatives and demand ransoms. The authorities believe that obligatory SIM card registration will make it easier to track the owners of phones used to commit crimes.

Nonetheless some people are still using unregistered SIM cards. Edmundo Manhica, the spokesperson of the National Communications Institute of Mozambique (INCM), told STV “Recently Arecom has been receiving denunciations of the existence of unregistered SIM cards, or cards with irregular registration”.

He pointed out that the users of mobile phones have the legal duty to register their SIM cards and to notify the authorities of any irregularities committed by mobile phone operators.

Manhica said that recently Arecom had detected cases of SIM box fraud in the central city of Chimoio. A SIM box is a device that forms part of a Voice Over Iinternet (VoIP) gateway installation. It contains several SIM cards, linked to the gateway, but kept separately from it.

The device becomes fraudulent when it routes international calls through the VoIP gateway and connects the calls as local traffic – thus evading the payment of charges for international calls. SIM boxes are fairly cheap and are not generally illegal (although Ghana recently banned them).

Arecom points out SIM box fraud has led to “considerable financial losses for mobile phone

operators, because of the reduction in the legitimate calls that terminate in their networks”. It believes that this fraud “has damaged the security, integrity and quality of the mobile telephony network”.

It is the use of unregistered prepaid SIM cards which assist this fraud, by making it difficult to track down the fraudsters.

Source: allAfrica

Related

Tags: ArecomINCMMinister of Transport and communicationsMovitelMozambican Communications Regulatory AuthorityMozambiqueNational Communications Institute of MozambiqueSIM cardSTVTmcelVodacomмозамбикموزمبيقモザンビーク莫桑比克
ScanSendShare320Tweet200Share56Pin72Send
Previous Post

US$18M to boost solar energy in Africa

Next Post

Zambia, Zimbabwe to start building Batoka power plant next year

FurtherAfrica

FurtherAfrica

Founded in 2015 FurtherAfrica is an online platform centralising news and content focusing on the development and growth story of the African continent.

Related Posts

Credit Rating

Fitch increases Zambia’s credit rating to CCC

by Financial Insight Zambia
April 15, 2021
Natural Resources

Total postpones application for South Africa drilling

by Staff
April 15, 2021
South Africa signs Johnson & Johnson vaccine deal
Coronavirus

Botswana joins hands with private sector in COVID-19 vaccine procurement, rollout

by Staff
April 15, 2021
Zimbabwe Finance Minister begins roadshow to win over investors
Finance

Zimbabwe Finance Minister begins roadshow to win over investors

by Staff
April 15, 2021
Investing

BUA Group investing US$300M towards Nigeria’s sugar self-sufficiency

by Farmers Review Africa
April 15, 2021
Next Post
Mozambique hopes to raise US$500M for renewable energy projects

Zambia, Zimbabwe to start building Batoka power plant next year

Opinion: Being “factfull” about Africa

Opinion: Being “factfull” about Africa

Developing Africa through private sector finance with Sérgio Pimenta, IFC

Developing Africa through private sector finance with Sérgio Pimenta, IFC

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2021 AFSIC
2022 Indaba Mining

FurtherAfrica Partners

The Exchange Club of Mozambique Taarifa Rwanda
CrudeMix Africa TechGist Africa Farmers Review Africa
Botswana unplugged Financial Insights Zambia Africa Oil & Power
Harambee Africa Novafrica  

Subscribe to FurtherAfrica

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new articles on your email.

Join 73,051 other subscribers.

FurtherAfrica

© 2021 FurtherMarkets

FurtherAfrica is a FurtherMarkets Limited platform

  • Countries
  • OpenTalk
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Weekend
  • About

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Countries
    • Angola
    • Botswana
    • Cape Verde
    • DRC
    • Eswatini
    • Ethiopia
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritius
    • Mozambique
    • Namibia
    • Nigeria
    • Rwanda
    • South Africa
    • Tanzania
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  • OpenTalk
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Weekend
  • About

© 2021 FurtherMarkets

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?