Orange, MTN deactivate 3 mln unregistered SIM cards

The results of the unregistered SIM card deactivation operations in Cameroon are getting clearer.

Since July 1, date given to the operators by the government to suspend all unregistered SIM cards in their databases, the two leaders in the mobile telephone market in the country have already deactivated close to 3 million SIM cards, we learned from authorised sources.

With 2 million SIM cards deactivated since a week ago, according to the management of the company, Orange Cameroun is the operator having combed the most through its subscriber base up to now.

Because at MTN, approximately 600,000 unregistered SIM cards have been deactivated to date, according to internal sources.

Nevertheless, as confirmed by the communiqués published through the media, these operators still offer the possibility to late subscribers to get registered. Thus, the deactivated chips are reactivated, to enable their owners place calls, send text messages or surf on internet again.

As a reminder, on June 30, based on an order from the government, mobile operators in activity in the country closed yet another user registration campaign.

This last campaign followed the signature, in September 2015, of a decree from the Prime Minister providing new instructions in terms of mobile user registration.

These government directives come, themselves, in a context of insecurity in which mobile telephones have often been used to carry out kamikaze attacks, and at a time when scourges such as the SIM Box fraud are increasing in the country.

The Minister of Posts and Telecoms therefore urged the mobile operators to deactivate all the SIM cards which remained unregistered after June 30,2016.