By ‘Majirata Latela
The Communications (Subscriber Identity Module Registration) Regulations 2021 which were given the green light by both houses of parliament in December 2021, will come into operation on June 24 2022.
According to the two major network operators in Lesotho, Vodacom Lesotho and Econet Lesotho, they are ready to effect the law on the said date. The two companies have set aside funds to start registering their customers’ sim cards countrywide.
Speaking at a press conference which was held on Monday this week, Vodacom Lesotho managing director, Mohale Ralebitso said Vodacom Lesotho has already used M8.1 million for preparation of starting the registration. He said they have already hired new staff members who will handle the registration.
“We contributed to what has now been enacted as law and we would like to let our customers that we are ready to start the registration on the said date. We will start with the piloting process which will be to make sure that the processes and devices we have bought are effective to start rolling out the registration countrywide.
“We have invested in this process and need the customers’ buy in, into the whole process because our only job is to start registration. Registration of the sim card in important so that we as operators know that a certain contact number belongs to a certain individual and is certainly the sole and registered owner of the sim card to avoid criminal acts that people may perform with unregistered sim cards,” Ralebitso said.
He further pleaded with the customers to start registering and obtaining national Identification cards as they will be used for registration of the customers. He said on the case of company sim cards, there will be a proxy person that will be chosen by the company to registers the company sim cards.
Econet Lesotho managing director, Dennis Plaatjies, said Lesotho is among a few countries in Africa which do not register the sim cards, noting such sim card registration will protect customers’ funds.
He added that the registration will also help the security agencies to find perpetrators of unlawful acts with the registered sim cards.
“ETL has entered in a contract with an external supplier we are currently working with for registration. We will be using National Identification Civil Registration to verify the customer during registration.
“For very old people who cannot be able to come in person to register the law has provision for such people and we will keep updating our customers so that we are at par with each other every step of the way. We urge customers that when the time arrives for registering, they should register and avoid waiting for the last day of registration,” Plaatjies said.
He added that customers should be aware that if they do not register their sim cards, they will be removed from the network service provider system and in that way will not be able to use them.
Lesotho Communication Authority’s chief regulatory officer, Thato Ponya, said there have been many challenges before passing of the Bill which includes being returned by parliament for conducting further “consultations from different stake holders.”
According to the regulations section 5(1) a licensee shall retain the subscriber information obtained during registration and such information shall be held on strictly confidential basis and no person or entity shall be held on a strictly confidential basis and no person or entity shall be allowed access to any subscriber information, except by an order of court.
