CA calls for 100pc compliance in data cleanup drive by Telcos

By Steve UMIDHA

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has directed all mobile operators to ensure 100 percent compliance in the SIM-registration exercise whose deadline lapsed on Saturday October 15, 2022.

Safaricom PLC, Airtel Kenya and Telkom Kenya will now have additional 60 days to validate their data cleanup drive.

“Taking into account the improved level of performance so far, Operators are directed to take additional steps to ensure 100 percent compliance in the next 60 days,” directed Chiloba.

Further adding that, “For the avoidance of doubt, the 60 days is not an extension, but a period for the mobile operators to take certain actions including denial of service to prompt further compliance.”

These steps include graduated denial of service to SIM card holders not duly registered and eventual deactivation. The services to be affected by this action include voice, SMS, data, and mobile banking services.

As a result, the Authority said Monday that it will undertake a compliance audit to ascertain the level of compliance.

“Any Mobile Operator found non-compliant shall be liable to regulatory measures including a penalty of up to 0.5 percent of their Annual Gross Turnover,” warned Chiloba.

In April this year, the Authority extended the deadline for updating SIM card registration details by a further six months to give Mobile Operators and subscribers sufficient time to comply.

Over the period, CA said that it had witnessed major improvement in compliance levels by the Mobile Operators.

“In the last eight months, we have seen Safaricom’s compliance levels move from 52 percent to 93 percent while Airtel moved from 42 percent to 81.2 percent. Each Operator is under obligation to ensure 100 percent compliance. The Telkom Kenya case is still under review and more details shall be provided upon conclusion of the review,” noted CA’s Director General Ezra Chiloba.

All the Mobile Operators were by the midnight of October 15, 2022 expected to ensure that all subscribers had updated their SIM card registration details in line with the law.

CA will be holding further consultations with key policy and industry players on future policy, legal and regulatory interventions that will ensure more efficient, effective, and transparent process of enlisting subscribers of telecommunication and ICT services.

Prior to the extension review, CA had directed all mobile operators to clean up their subscriber databases by April 15, a failure to which it will start deactivating all unregistered SIM cards.

But the communications agency was forced to rescind those calls due to widespread public uproar over the process and its timeliness which was coinciding with the General Elections, held on August 9.

Last week Members of parliament (MPs) from the drought-stricken areas urged the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) to postpone the deactivation of the unregistered SIM card until the prevailing drought situation was over.

The switching off of such SIMs, according to the authority, is also aimed at curbing crime cases believed to be perpetrated by anonymous mobile phone subscribers – who target unsuspecting users.

Previous attempts have seen telecom firms such as Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya, for instance, switch off hundreds of thousands of such SIMs that are not properly registered.

CA believes that a growing number of mobile users are obtaining new SIMs but are not presenting them for proper record keeping. Kenyan adults above the age of 18 own at least two SIMs and are allowed by law to have up to four of such chips on their gadgets.

The said audit was undertaken in September 2018, which revealed that a large number of SIM cards at the time had either been unregistered, partly registered, improperly or procedurally registered and fraudulently registered while others were registered against multiple owners.

The regulator who relies on mobile operators for such data, is yet to make public the number of unregistered SIMs in the hands of thousands of users across the country – despite its renewed push for such exercise.