The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) says the disconnection of unregistered SIM cards could adversely affect the financial outlook of the country’s telecommunications sector.
This comes after Telecom Namibia reported a potential monthly loss of N$7.5 million due to the deactivation of 191,598 unregistered prepaid SIM cards, effective 1 April 2024.
Similarly, the announcement follows the Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) revealing an anticipated loss of N$8.1 million in revenue per month from 323,236 unregistered customers.
Combined, Telecom and MTC project a total loss of N$15.6 million from 514,834 unregistered SIM cards.
CRAN Chief Executive Officer Emilia Nghikembua said the projected losses will have an impact on the overall financial outlook of the sector.
However, she added that the authority is pleased with the operator’s strategies to mitigate further losses.
“Licensees operating in a regulated environment must understand that any degree of variation in regulatory compliance, will inherently, have an impact on their operational efficiency and or financial outlook,” she said.
“It is for these reasons that operators must put in place a robust system to ensure regulatory compliance and stringent mitigatory strategies to alleviate the negative impact of any deviation in compliance. This is an inherent risk of any regulated business.”
The CEO emphasised that losing phone numbers wasn’t the intended outcome of SIM registration. She added that suspending unregistered cards is an unforeseen issue that could have been avoided if people had simply registered their SIMs.
Nghikembua emphasised the importance of SIM registration in obtaining a digital identity, crucial for e-commerce purposes.
“The primary aim of the process is for operators to know their customers and for consumers to obtain a digital identity, which is pivotal for e-commerce purposes. With the advancement of technology, e-commerce has become a new way of doing business, utilised for banking, financial services, and other administrative operations,” she said.
In response to the challenges posed by unregistered SIM cards, CRAN encourages operators to implement aggressive SIM registration reconnection modalities to mitigate revenue losses.
