The Department of Communications has no idea how many retailers bought and registered stacks of SIM cards in order to sell them without end-users going through the RICA process.
SA's mobile operators spent almost R1 billion getting subscribers to comply with the SIM-card registration legislation.
Yet, despite the investment and almost two years of building databases to store information linking SIM cards to identity numbers and addresses to cut down on crime, pre-RICAed cards can be bought in outlets for around R20.
RICA - or the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act - was brought into effect in the middle of 2009, and was meant to cut down on crimes committed with the use of cellphones.
Under the law, everyone with a SIM card had to provide proof of address and identity, by midnight last Thursday, to have the SIMs registered on databases that are maintained by the mobile operators.
At the end of last month, Cell C had 99.99% of its contract and 97% prepaid subscribers registered. MTN had 99.5% contract and 97% prepaid customers registered, while Vodacom reported 98.98% of its contract and 95.12% of its prepaid base had registered.
The exercise has cost the mobile operators close on R1 billion: Vodacom has spent “hundreds” of million, while MTN forked over R250 million and Cell C between R300 million and R400 million.
8ta, which launched after RICA came into effect, has all of its customers registered and built RICA into its cost base.
No numbers
However, the law has already been thwarted as Eyewitness News this week revealed pre-registered cards can easily be bought.
Nel says the department understands that these occurrences seem to be limited to a small number of traders who either knowingly or possibly unknowingly contravened the law.
Speaking at an urgent press conference in Pretoria this morning, deputy communications minister Obed Bapela said the department does not know how many pre-RICAed SIMs are in the system.
Bapela added that the department will meet with operators within the next fortnight to provide it with the numbers of cards retailers bulk-registered, which will allow the department to investigate whether these cards have been sold without being re-RICAed.
Bapela noted some of the bulk-registered SIM cards could be used for legitimate purposes, such as in vehicles for tracking purposes.
The department had received reports of SIM cards being sold for inflated prices, such as R30, but thought the mobile operators were recouping the cost of the process from subscribers, said Bapela. “People have been ripped [off], unfortunately.”
Sales of pre-registered SIM cards came to the department's attention “very late,” noted Bapela. “Let the figures come out.”
Bapela pointed out that the law does not set a limit as to how many SIM cards can be registered by one person or company. However, people who register cards in their names and then provide them to other people run the risk of falling foul of the law if the SIMs are used in the commission of a crime, he explained.
No loopholes
“We have no way to know what happens to the movement of SIMs between customers once they are registered,” says Vodacom's chief officer of corporate affairs, Portia Maurice. “It is the responsibility of the user to update their RICA information.”
The operator, SA's largest, limited the number of SIMs that one person can register to 100, Maurice adds.
However, despite the potential for people to register and then sell SIMs without the proper process being followed, there are no loopholes in the legislation, says Nel. He comments that there will always be people who will try to circumvent the legislation.
Nel says although there is no mechanism in place to trace a SIM card after it has been RICAed and then sold, people who sell the cards and those who buy them face prosecution.
Bapela added the cards can be traced to the outlets through which they were sold, but it will be difficult to track down consumers who have bought pre-registered cards. He said government may decide to cut those SIMs off the network to force consumers to comply with the law.
Based on the size of the problem, government may prosecute the offenders, he noted.
In terms of the Act, end-users who have flouted the law face a fine of R60 000, or a year behind bars; while service providers face a fine of R100 000 for every day a card is not registered, or jail time.
Nel adds the law has already played a role in assisting convictions as it allows for communications and messages to be intercepted. He was unable to provide exact figures.
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