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Thursday 2 June 2011

Rica warning

SOUTH African mobile operators MTN, Vodacom and Cell C face the daunting prospect of switching off about 8 million SIM cards at the end of the month.



This is to comply with the Regulation of Interception of Communication Act (Rica).
In November, the Cabinet approved a six-month extension of the deadline for operators to register their customers' details, including identity numbers and addresses.
Operators had originally been given up to December to comply with the Rica law, aimed at preventing criminal activity. Operators had successfully pleaded that it would be difficult to comply with the law within the original allotted time frame.
In its annual results presentation last month, Vodacom said it had increased its customer base to 26,5 million. Prepaid customers stood at 21,4 million, with contract customers up to 5,1 million.
Vodacom said it had registered 84percent of the customer base for Rica as at March 31 this year, which meant that about 4million SIM cards were yet to be registered.
Executive head of media relations at Vodacom Richard Boorman noted that SIM cards that were not actively used within a 90-day period were automatically cut off.
He added that it was possible that a large number of unregistered SIMS were for data services.
"As a percentage of revenue, it would be much smaller than 85 percent."
Boorman said plans were in place for a "last-minute surge" to get registered.
For customers who missed the June 30 date, "they will be able to reactivate their SIM and get the old number back as long as they do it within six months of the cut-off date,"Vodacom said.
"We have been running both above and below the line communications programmes to educate our customers that they have to Rica all their SIM cards.
"A key concern is that we'll be forced to cut off contract customers who haven't registered, but they will still be liable for their monthly bill," said Boorman.
MTN officer Robert Madzonga said: "Approximately 80 percent of our subscribers have been Rica'ed."
Cell C said: " In excess of 94 percent of our base has already Rica'ed. Cell C boasts a subscriber base exceeding 7million customers."

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