SIM validation: ‎Telcos struggle to regain deactivated customers ...counts revenue lost, as subscribers' groan continues

By Bankole Orimisan

With deactivation of over 37 million subscribers on their networks, telecoms operators in the Information and Telecommunications Technology (ICT), industry have begun a struggle to re-register the affected customers to retain them on their respective networks.

  The development is coming as the operators move to bring back their subscribers and still attract new ones from among their competitors' subscribers, who are currently disgruntled due the deactivation of their SIM lines.

   ‎Meanwhile, as affected subscribers continue to besiege the operators' customer centres to re-register their SIMS, operators are also strategising on ways to retain their ‎subscribers.

   The move, it was learnt, was to be able re-register their affected subscribers, before they move to competitor's network out of frustration.

    The telecoms operators were, on August 4, directed to deactivate over 37 million Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) lines by the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC).

    The directive followed the NCC's discovery that over 45 per cent of already-registered SIMS by the operators were invalid.

    NCC said it made the discovery last December after a clean-up exercise of the already-collected subscribers' data sent to the Commission by the operators.

‎   However, last week's massive deactivation of SIMS by the network was informed by the imposition of N120.4 million sanction on the operators ‎due to their reluctance to follow the directive of the NCC.

   Corporate Services Executive MTN, Akinwale Goodluck, at the weekend, said the telecoms company had extended its operation times from 8am to 8pm in order to create enough time for people to register their deactivated SIMs.

   "We wish to apologise to all our customers who are experiencing difficulty with the ongoing SIM registration/revalidation exercise. Affected customers can revalidate their registration details at all MTN sales outlets including the nearest agent and dealer shops. 

   "We appeal for calm as customers visit our various outlets. We are committed to ensuring that all affected subscribers complete the process as directed by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC). 

   "It is for this reason that we have increased the number of staff handling SIM registration/validation across all our channels. We have also mandated all our registration outlets to remain open till 8pm every day until further notice,” he said.

    MTN, with the largest number of telecoms subscribers of over 62 million on its network, has18.6 million invalid subscribers on its network, according to NCC. Other operators share the remaining numbers of the over 37 million.

   Also, Airtel had also added every Sunday of to its work days at its customer centres across the country starting from 12pm daily.

   Meanwhile, investigation by the Guardian over the weekend revealed that telcos have started losing revenues due to the implementation of the regulator's directive, asking them to deactivate subscribers with defective registration data on their networks.

   "With the development, you don't need to be told that we and our competitors are losing a lot of revenue‎s. This is expected, because when you deactive a subscriber for whatever reason, what you are doing invariably is to prevent them from loading airtime to make calls," a top official of one of the affected telecoms firms disclosed this over the weekend.

  "So, we won't be able to make money from our subscribers, who have been deactivated until we find a way to re-registered them."

   Telecoms subscribers have also called on the operators to deploy more equipment to assuage the sufferings of ‎affected subscribers who continue to groan under the SIM re-registration directive.

   President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, who described the situation as uncalled-for, enjoined the networks to accelerate the subscribers' re-registration exercise.

   "I want to tell you that the deactivation of subscribers from the network has caused us loss of money and other valuable things, as we are now helpless; we also find it difficult to re-register as you now have crowds everywhere. This is unfair to us customers," he said.

    However, the NCC's Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, had said directive by the regulator was in the interest increased security and safety for telecoms subscribers.