The Communication Commission of Kenya(CCK) plans to start another round of SIM card registration in the coming weeks after the process was stopped two years ago. This comes after an amendment to the Kenya Information and Communications Act 1998 was passed, requiring registration of all telecommunication services subscribers.

CCK acting Director General Francis Wangusi said the regulator had not been backed by the law before, but now it was ready. The legal backing will see unregistered users switched off as it empowers the CCK to take action against operators connecting unregistered users.

By the end of September 2010 when the last registration round was put on hold, about 62 percent of the estimated 20 million mobile users had registered their numbers. Safaricom had registered 71 % of its subscribers, Airtel Kenya (then Zain)  had registered 54 %, Essars Yu Mobile 7 % and Telkom Orange had managed to register 4 % of its users.

According to CCK latest statistics there were 28.08 million mobile phone subscribers by the end of December 2011. The percentage of registered users may have increased with the higher usage of mobile money services. Since March, Safaricom has been running a campaign to register its users and confirm their registration via SMS.

Registration of SIM cards the CCK says will help reduce SIM card related crimes like fraud in mobile money, kidnappings, fraud and hate messages.  Subscribers are required to give their full names, identity document number, physical address and alternative contacts among other details for registration.

Courtesy: Telecompaper