Basil not happy with Morobe’s low rate of SIM registration

MAMOSE, especially Morobe, is not doing well with the registration of SIM cards, says Minister for Information and Communication Technology and Energy Sam Basil.
Basil was speaking during the third regional sensitisation workshop in Lae on Friday.
The workshop, under a State-church partnership, will see pastors and religious workers in Momase support the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (Nicta) and service providers to register users.
The first two workshops were held in Mt Hagen and Kokopo.
Basil said Mamose and Morobe in particular must take the lead in SIM card registration.
“I am told by Nicta that reports from service providers – Telikom PNG Limited, Bmobile Vodafone Limited and Digicel PNG Limited – that registration in this region, including Morobe, is not going well,” he said.
“East New Britain, West New Britain and Milne Bay are the only three provinces that have exceeded 50 per cent.
“This is not good.
“People believe in the leadership of Morobe.
“We must move forward for Morobe.
“We must be the first in SIM card registration.
I will make sure Nicta registers all SIM cards.
“The deadline is April 30. There will be no more extensions.”
Basil made it clear that the church must help service providers and the people to have all SIM cards registered as Nicta would not allow further extensions.
He said preachers and religious workers in Morobe must help the registration of church members before the deadline.
“If there is no church, there is no government,” Basil said.
Digicel Mamose manager Brian Malone said there were more than 320,000 subscribers in Morobe, but only 50,000 had registered.
“This is because Morobe has very remote places, and Digicel teams cannot track in,” he said.