Thursday, January 14, 2010

Botswana Extends SIM registration Deadline


The Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) has pushed back the deadline for the nation’s mobile subscribers to register their SIM cards, the Sunday Standard reports.

Pre-paid customers of Botswana’s three wireless operators – Mascom Wireless, Orange Botswana and BTC Mobile (beMOBILE) – were originally given until 31 December 2009 to register their SIMs or face the disconnection of their service, but the deadline has since been extended to 31 January 2010.

According to BTA spokesperson Aaron Nyelesi, 85% of mobile users have registered their details, 45% of which have not yet been processed by the system. ‘We are presently converting information that we captured from paper to electronic database. After the process is complete we will then cut off the customers who have not registered,’ he added.

The BTA hopes that the registration of numbers will help the country better plan and expand the telecoms industry, as well as help curb crime. From 1 January 2010 new pay-as-you-go SIMs will be activated only after electronic registration has taken place.

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