KAMPALA: Despite massive challenges facing the telecom sector in the country amidst large growth in recent years, Ugandans remain optimistic that the industry can continue to move forward. One of those challenges is SIM registration, which will begin on March 1 and run for one-year in an effort to crackdown on unregistered SIM cards in the country. “It is the right step to push the telecom sector forward into the global strategy that will enable more investment and bolstering of IT in the country,” said Warid official Andre Yussif. He told Bikyamasr.com that the future of telecom in Uganda will “depend on how well the country develops strategies in line with other countries.” The UCC – Uganda's telecom regulator – announced that companies would have 12 months to register their customers, and at the end all unregistered SIM cards will be cut off from services. Edouard Blondeau, the Chief Strategy Officer of Orange Uganda Limited, says the company plans to use the exercise to roll out a simple but efficient phone-based registration technology that works across the country, including in remote rural areas. “This technology has been thoroughly tested in other African countries where Orange had to address the registration of customer SIMs as a result of regulatory obligations,” Blondeau told The Independent, without revealing details of how the technology will work. He said the company will be ready to start the registration exercise and finish within the stipulated period. If successful, the simple, efficient and low-cost technology could be deployed in other registration exercises, including census and voter registration. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/D93Qs Tags: SIM, Telecom, Uganda Section: East Africa, Tech
