Unregistered SIMs: NCC Disconnects 386,536 GSM lines in Nigeria

About 386,536 Global System for Mobile (GSM) telephone lines were disconnected in June, following a directive by the regulatory Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to operators to deactivate unregistered SIMs on their networks.telcom

The directive followed the expiration of the 30 June 2013 deadline given to all subscribers in the country to register their SIMs or face disconnection.

The local daily National Mirror reported Wednesday that the number of active subscribers fell from 120,748,754 in May to 120,362,218 in June because of the disconnection.

The country’s four GSM operators have embarked on a campaign to get those with unregistered SIMs to registered them in order to have their lines reconnected.