LATEST KENYAN NEWS: DUE TO RESTRICTED SIM CARDS, MANY KENYANS ARE STRANDED- SIM CARD RESTRICTION IN KENYA.

Following the expiration of the deadline for SIM registration on October 15, 2022, thousands of Kenyans’ cell phone services have been suspended.

Safaricom, a well-known telecoms provider, sent messages to its impacted customers, urging them to stop by their mobile stores to get the blocked lines reopened.

Your line has been suspended while we update your registration, kindly note. To change your ID, go to the closest M-Pesa or Safaricom store, the business advised one of its customers in a message.

“This morning, I got the suspension message (Sunday, October 16). I am unable to send messages, access data bundles, or make M-Pesa transactions. However, if someone calls me, the phone would be answered, a Nairobi resident named Lilian said on Sunday morning, according to The Standard.

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Telkom and Airtel customers were also impacted.

The deadline for SIM registration was established at October 15, 2022 by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

The government will now be able to sift out fraudsters and criminals who use unregistered cell phone lines to do harm, claims the CA.

According to the agency’s clarification on Friday, October 14, registration is a continuous procedure that cannot be limited to a single date, and users whose cell phone lines would be blocked after the registration deadline would still be able to reactivate them in later days.

Due to the deadline of October 15, 2022, operators won’t end the exercise. We anticipate them to continue the procedure, said Liston, CA’s Assistant Director for Telecoms Licensing and Compliance.

The Kenyan Communications Authority originally set the deadline for SIM card registration as April 15, 2022, but later changed it to October 15.

In an effort to stop fraudulently registered lines in Kenya, the CA reported that more than 124,000 SIM cards had been cancelled as of June this year.

Prior to the deadline of October 15, 2022, data showed that around 14 million mobile phone lines across all mobile networks in the nation had not yet been properly registered.

The precise number of Kenyans who are impacted by the suspension is unknown, according to no official data that has been available.

According to the CA, approximately 59 million mobile phone devices were linked to Kenya’s various mobile networks as of September 2021.

According to the figures, which were based on returns from mobile carriers, there were 67.9% feature phones and 53.4% smartphones in use, with 33 million feature phones and 26 million smartphones, respectively.

The survey, which spanned July to September 2021, also revealed that there were 64.9 million active mobile money subscriptions.

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