Here's why your simcard could be locked soon

Thousands of mobile phone users in Kenya may be disconnected from the networks in the next month unless they register their SIM cards afresh.

This follows a new development that details of thousands of SIM cards already registered do not match with information held by the government’s integrated population registration system. 

The new registration is aimed at boosting security in the telecommunications sub-sector.

Already, the Communications Authority (CA) has issued network providers with fresh guidelines that were first released in September asking them to ensure that all lines within their fold were duly registered.

Safaricom and Airtel in line with the directive have been sending their subscribers messages asking them to register their lines afresh before the lapse of a 90-day window that the CA had given.

“Dear customer, to avoida disconnection of your line, please urgently confirm your registrations details by dialing *234# or calling customer care …,” reads part of Safaricom’s message to its customers.

 Safaricom’s corporate affairs director Stephen Chege told Mark Okuttah of Business Daily that the telco needs more information from the subscribers who have received such texts. 

“For a small number of subscribers who have received the message, it means that there is some information that we do not have which we need to obtain in order to have their full details on record,” Chege said, adding that ‘if this information is not provided, we will be obliged to remove the subscribers from the network.” 

 It is estimated that more than 300,000 SIM cards that are registered with Safaricom do not have their corresponding details in order.

The number of such subscribers in the other networks is not clear.