Roaming SIMs to be registered online

The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (Rura) is considering registering SIM cards owned by people living in the Diaspora online before the July deadline.The move follows requests by the people living outside Rwanda and in possession of SIM Cards issued by Rwanda-based telecom operators to be given another option to register their cards without coming back physically.Speaking to The New Times yesterday, Jean Baptiste Mutabazi, Rura’s head of Communication and Media Regulation, said that people with Rwanda-based telecom operators’ SIM cards requested the regulator to help them register in the countries of their convenience.Initially, Rura had issued a directive to deactivate unregistered roaming SIM cards after the deadline.Those to be affected were among others, students studying abroad, diplomats and members of the business community.The ongoing registration of the cards is expected to cover over six million SIM cards by July 31, after which the ones that will not have been registered will be deactivated and disconnected off their telecommunication networks.Conceptual stageMutabazi said “We are working out a plan with telecom operators to create an entry pass that would allow those people register online.”However Mutabazi said the initiative was still at a conceptual stage.MTN, Tigo, and Airtel allow subscribers to use their Rwandan phone numbers when travelling in some countries. The exercise that started on February 4 has seen about 3,839,458 SIM cards, out of 6,039,615 subscribers ,registered by yesterday.Norman Munyampundu, the MTN Rwanda senior customer operations manager, said they willdevelop an application that will allow people in the Diaspora to register online.“We shall upload it on our website,” he said.

National

Roaming SIMs to be registered online