With less than two days for the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) and the police to switch off all subscriber identification module (SIM) cards that were registered without using the National Identification cards, and passports, authorities say the exercise is on doing well.
Isaac Kalembe, the UCC spokesperson on Tuesday said over 7 million subscribers have updated their SIM card details as per last week’s directive.
Mr Kalembe,”The numbers are impressive. By the weekend, over seven million subscribers had updated their SIM cards details.”
There are 23m telecom subscribers in the country.
SIM card registration, according to UCC, is intended to help law enforcers to identify the mobile phone SIM card owners, track criminals who use phones for illegal activities, curb incidents such as loss of phone through theft, hate text messages, fraud, inciting violence and help service providers know their customers better.
The decision to re-register sim cards was impelled by security concerns arising from the killing of Assistant Inspector General of Police, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, his driver and body guard by unknown assassins. Police authorities have since admitted that unregistered SIM cards have derailed efforts to trace the suspects.
