THE President of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Olusola Teniola, has said that the present move by the government to restrict SIM card ownership by persons may affect the revenue of telecoms companies.
Teniola said though the number of SIM cards will reduce if the new policy is implemented, the number of subscribers would not reduce because people must use phones.
“Well, the recording and reporting of data is the issue. The industry currently is producing an annual revenue of about $8 billion from the sale of services related to voice, data and other services.
“If you reduce the number of SIMs associated with a unique subscriber, obviously the number of subscriptions will reduce, but the unique subscribers will not reduce because at the end of the day, we need at least a phone to be able to make a call or to do mobile internet.
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“So, the revenue per subscribers may drop a little maybe like 5 per cent, but the actual overall impact on the industry will not change because, at the end of the day, we are talking about real human beings that are actually making calls and not connections.
“So, the only problem with the data as presented by NCC, is that the figures in the data that they used to calculate broadband penetration will reduce because they are using subscription-based on 3G and 4G network. And if you take out those SIM cards that are associated with the unique subscriber and you reduce it to maybe three, then you will have an impact on the data being presented and also the penetration on the broadband as recorded will reduce. It will go below the 37.8 per cent that is currently recorded,” Teniola said.
Speaking on the move to curb crime by reducing the number of SIM cards ownership per person, Teniola said if the integrity of the national database is compromised, then the reducing SIM card ownership may be counterproductive.
“The concerns that we have is that the SIM registration database isn’t a national database and that the integrity of the national database run under NIMC needs to be ascertained by whether the NIN number cannot be duplicated because if you have any leakage in the NIN database, then any criminal will just basically circumvent the NIN database to increase the number, irrespective of the numbers you limit each one to have, so it doesn’t really solve the problem, but it might help reduce the issue, and that is around how do we identify SIM card holders with an individual?
“Remember that the problem is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional because most kidnappers do not use their own mobile number to call the victims family, they actually use the victims’ phone number to call their family, so it didn’t solve the problem,” he noted.
He, however, urged the government to adopt the postal code system which is in use in America and the UK and also a digital address system.
“So, what we advocate in ATCON is that the Minister should also look into adopting the postal code system as adopted in America and the UK in addition to a digital address system”, he said.
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