SIM card registration taken to doorsteps

Telecom subscribers who have been reluctant to visit customer care centres to register their SIM cards are soon getting the service from the comfort of their homes and offices as service providers have decided to take the exercise to doorsteps. The door-to-door registration exercise kicked off on Friday when telecom giants MTN started combing the city centre. Norman Munyampundu, MTN’s senior customer operations manager, said the campaign will be conducted every Friday across the country to help people beat the July 31 SIM card registration deadline. “We are left with only two months to the deadline, but 30 per cent of our subscribers are yet to register. These are our target,” Mynyampundu said. The ongoing SIM card registration is expected to cover more than six million SIM cards before the deadline, after which the ones that will not have been registered will be deactivated and disconnected off telecommunication networks, according to Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (Rura). The exercise has seen more than 3.3 million SIM cards registered since it started three months ago. Rura is also considering registering SIM cards owned by people in the Diaspora online before the deadline. Munyampundu said most people forget to register their fixed lines and modems and appealed to them to do so as soon as possible. SIM card registration aims to curb crimes committed using mobile phones. The registration is part of the regional exercise. All the East Africa Community member countries are undertaking similar exercise. Abel Ndagijimana, a shop attendant in the city, expressed gratitude to MTN for bringing the service closer to them, saying they did not have time to go to the centre to conduct the exercise. “I never got a chance to register my card because I leave home early in the morning and return late,” he said.

National

SIM card registration taken to doorsteps