Airtel Malawi has switched off a million subscribers who are yet to register in the SIM card registration exercise.
This follows the company’s failure to deactivate all unregistered SIM cards by Monday October 1, 2018.
In a statement on Thursday, Airtel Managing Director, Charles Kamoto, said the mobile service provider failed to complete deactivation of SIM cards by Monday due to technical reasons, but the process was finalized on Wednesday.
According to Kamoto, the company has already registered the majority of its subscribers over the past months.
“Airtel has a stringent quality control validation process for customer registration which is essential to satisfy compliance and the team accelerated the process to ensure completion of the initiative,” Kamoto said.
In the statement, the mobile service provider has assured that it is committed to working with Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) and government on the registration exercise.
Airtel’s rival TNM announced on Monday that it has registered 75 percent of its subscribers and is on course to achieve 100 percent compliance in on-going regulatory exercise.
By Monday, TNM had deactivated all SIM cards which were not registered with the mobile service provider.
For one to get a SIM card registered, they need to present one of the following; National Identity, drivers licence, passport, refugee identity card or 2014 voters’ registration.
