Bmobile, Telikom deactivating unregistered Sim by this month

By CLARISSA MOI
Bmobile and Telikom have started sending short messaging service (SMS) reminders to customers that the deadline to register Sim cards in July 31.
Kumul Telikom Holdings Ltd acting chairman Rueben Kautu said this followed the meeting with the National Information Communication Technology Authority’s (Nicta) chief executive Charles Punaha and his team two weeks ago who confirmed that the deactivation of unregistered subscriber identity module (Sim) cards would be effective after July 31.
There would be no extension.
“We are sending out SMS reminders to all our customers that have not registered their details against their Sim cards,” he said.
“(That’s) about 1.6 per cent of our current active customers.
“As of Tuesday, July 14, we have sent a one-week notice through SMS to all our unregistered customers.
“Our approach is to manage the notification in a timely manner to allow customers to register their Sims now, before the deactivation date.
“By July 20, we will remind our customers again with a 24-hour notice prior to us enforcing a one-way barring.
“And by July 30, for those still not registered, we will send them a final notice.”
Punaha said as part of the Sim card registration exercise, mobile network operators had started call barring: temporarily disconnecting the numbers so that subscribers who had not registered their Sim cards would not be able to receive and make calls.
Digicel PNG senior vice-president Lorna McPherson confirmed with The National that they had started temporarily disconnecting subscribers.
Subscribers who had registered their Sim cards without providing proper identification cards are asked to provide those requirement at a later date.
She said a lot of people did not do this so they did not complete their registration properly.
McPherson reiterated that Sim card registration was free and customers should not pay any fees to have their Sim cards registered.