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The Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) and telecom operators have expressed
optimism over the commencement of the Sim card registration from May 1.

In a telephone
interview with NEXT, Reuben Muoka the spokesperson for the commission
said, “Any new sim card bought subsequently from May 1, 2010 must be
registered for life.”

The commission
announced in December that the sim card registration is part of efforts
to curb crime in the country, but the exercise will, however, begin
with new sim cards purchased by new subscribers.

Mr. Muoka explained
that the registration will be done online, adding that “operators are
expected to put all machinery in motion for the commencement of the
process. We suspect that they will sell what is called partially
activated lines, whereby, you may get a line but can only receive calls
or Short Message Service (SMS) but not able to make calls or send
texts. So, you must now go to a particular place where you will have
your sim registered before you can begin to enjoy these services,” said
Mr. Muoka.

MTN is ready

In an email
response to NEXT, Funmilayo Omogbenigun, the General Manager,
Communications, MTN Nigeria said, “Yes, MTN Nigeria is ready to
commence its Sim cards registration come May 1, 2010. We have installed
equipment that captures bio-metric and demographic data.”

Ms. Omogbenigun noted that the registration exercise will not affect the prices of Sim cards in the market.

Registration requirements

However, there are some basic requirements from new subscribers to ensure a successful exercise.

Visafone Nigeria
explained, “We need to capture subscriber’s name, phone number,
address, digital photo and biometrics (thumb & index finger print).
These are the specific requirements needed from the subscriber at no
cost to ensure the smooth flow of the process.”

Existing subscribers

The Communications
Commission, the industry regulator said it will handle the registration
of the active subscribers sims estimated in excess of 70 million, even
as it has not yet decided on the commencement date.

“We hope to start
within the next three months. The duration for the process will depend
on when we start, because we need to review when we begin and know what
kind of deadline is appropriate in this circumstance,” said Mr. Muoka.

Price Cap

Ahead of the Sim
card registration, the commission has also announced the introduction
of a price cap system for the benefit of subscribers.

Stephen Bello, the
acting vice chairman of the commission, in a recent statement said, the
regulator has developed a policy of price cap regulation, “where we
give a price and the competition can make you to operate within this
degree of freedom, but not beyond it.”

He argued that the
measure became necessary to forestall a situation in which operators
may “cooperate and try to maximize their profit”.

“Now we know for a
fact that the number of lines has increased, there is economy of scale
and you know that as you have advantages of economy of scale the unit
price comes down. We believe that the competition in the industry will
control prices,” added Mr. Bello.

Mr. Muoka
expantiated, “In order to make tariff to come down further just as the
interconnect rate came down last year, the expectation is that the
retail price will also come down. In order to actually make it happen,
we put a price cap that is, a price at which no operator will charge
above.”

He, however said
the price cap has not yet been determined, as such a judgment will be
based on “the market situation, what the competition is, the
interconnect rate and say no operators can charge above a certain
amount. We are going to review it, get more data from the operators
about their current rate and also do this in other services like SMS
etc., before implementing.”