From Monday, September 5, 2022, mobile network subscribers in Ghana who have not yet re-registered their SIM cards or have just completed stage one re-registration may face disciplinary actions such as the suspension of all incoming calls and data services for 48 hours (2 days) per week. As a second punitive action, this will be done in a sequential batch of numbers on a weekly rotational basis. The first punitive step involves re-routing all outgoing calls such that a message is played before all calls are processed on a daily basis.
This is part of the punitive actions that the National Communications Authority (NCA) has announced to all Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to implement against subscribers who have not re-registered their SIM Cards as of Monday, September 5, 2022.
The NCA notified MNOs of the registration exercise, which ends on September 30, 2022, in a letter dated September 2, 2022 and signed by the Director-General.
"Please be advised that the disciplinary measures mentioned at the NCA meeting on August 3rd, 2022, were compiled and assessed in response to your proposal. Following a thorough assessment and with the agreement of the Honourable Minister for Communications, please find the severe measures listed below "said the letter
Only AirtelTigo, Glo, MTN, and Vodafone are subject to the punitive measures that began this week. "MNOs [Mobile Network Operators] must divide unregistered SIM cards into five groups in order to undertake this punitive measure."
"These measures shall not include SMS blocking in order to allow defaulting customers to initiate registration if they so desire." Subscribers who fully register their SIM Cards within the 48-hour period will be unblocked by the MNOs only after the 48-hour period to avoid the MNOs meddling with their systems periodically," sections of the letter stated. Vodafone, for example, has already notified consumers that unregistered SIM cards would be barred from some services beginning September 5. The letter further stated that after September 30, 2022, all unregistered SIM cards will be disabled, affecting all BWAs including Telesol, Surfline, and Busy.
"MNOs shall place disconnected SIM Cards in a holding category, and current subscribers of these SIM Cards shall be given six (6) months to register their SIM cards, failing which these numbers would be churned by the MNOs," the statement continued.
