The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has given telecoms until December to enforce full compliance with its SIM card registration directive or face penalties.
CA, in a statement on Monday, gave a 60-day grace period in which the telecommunications companies are expected to deny voice, data, SMS or mobile banking services to subscribers yet to update their details before eventual deactivation.
“Each operator is under obligation to ensure 100 percent compliance,” CA chief executive Ezra Chiloba said, adding that it would undertake an audit to ascertain the level of compliance.
“Any mobile operator found non-compliant shall be liable to regulatory measures, including a penalty of up to 0.5 percent of their annual gross turnover,” said the regulator.
CA in March issued a directive to telecoms to carry out fresh registration of all their mobile telephone subscribers, including those already registered. The regulator extended the deadline from April 15 to October 15 to allow the firms to conduct a clean-up of subscriber lines as the State moves to consolidate efforts to enhance data security.
Of the three largest telecoms, Safaricom had listed 93 percent of users, with Airtel reporting 81.2 percent as of the deadline on Saturday, CA said.
However, it did not disclose Telkom Kenya’s compliance rate, stating instead that “the case is under review.”
On Friday, Telkom revealed that it had only listed 40 percent of its subscribers.
