Most South Africans heeded the call to register their SIM cards under the RICA law.
South Africans had until midnight yesterday to comply with the law and hand over proof of residence and identification so that SIM cards could be registered. The day before the deadline, operators reported that about 5% of SIMs had yet to be registered.
According to Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, there are an estimated 38 million people using cellphones, and about 52 million SIM cards altogether.
Subscribers who have not yet complied with the legislation can still register their SIM cards to reactivate services. However, contract customers who have been cut off are still liable for their monthly bills, and prepaid subscribers will lose their numbers within six months as they will be recycled.
Vodacom, SA's largest cellular provider, says just under a million SIMs were locked on its network after last night's RICA deadline.
“We have over 170 000 RICA agents across SA who are available to assist cut-off customers. The only thing to note is that reactivation can take around 24 hours so there may be some inconvenience,” says Portia Maurice, Vodacom's chief officer of corporate affairs.
MTN, the second-largest operator, is still tallying the final figures, but is “satisfied” with the number of its subscribers that registered their SIMs. Initial indications are that the numbers of unregistered subscribers are not significant, the company says.
MTN points out some non-RICAed subscribers that have been disconnected might experience delays in being reconnected after they have RICAed. “Our system cannot reconnect all the customers in one go; these subscribers are being reconnected in batches,” says Eddie Moyce, MTN SA's customer relationship executive.
Cell C was not immediately able to provide figures.
All of 8ta's subscribers are registered as the company launched after the law came into effect in the middle of 2009.
Virgin Mobile's chief strategy and marketing officer, Jonathan Newman, says about 2 000 postpaid and around 4 000 prepaid subscribers were suspended from the network.
Newman adds the company is seeing higher call volumes from customers that have woken up and wish to RICA their SIM cards.
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