SIM card registration opens debate on rights versus security

By Segun Oruame, Abuja
By May this year, all Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards not
registered with telephone networks in Nigeria will cease to work. The
move begins government desire to provide a central data base to track
phone users and salient intelligence on criminal use of phones.
Originally scheduled to have started in March, it has been shifted to
May by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) owing to inadequate
logistics.

But the move has generated as much controversies as it has won
acceptance. Many people fear it will provide convert means for
government to track down its perceived enemies and potentially offends
the provision of the constitution that guarantees free speech.

SIM card registration has frequently raised suspicion on the African
continent with long history of official muzzling of citizens’ voice.
In countries such as Botswana, Tanzania and South Africa among others
where SIM card registration has become pre-condition for use of mobile
phones, critics argued against what they perceived as the caging of
the ringtone that has defined Africa’s unprecedented growth of
connectivity. Tanzanians must register their SIM cards by June 2010
or lose the lines.

Already in Ghana where there are plans for SIM card registration this
year, stakeholders are complaining of likely abuse of citizens’
privacy and privileges. For them, it “constitutes unnecessary control
and curtailment of the rights of the citizenry.”

As one media put it “In the view of the liberal thinkers, it is not
appropriate for the government to compel the telecom operators to
“send all signaling through the 'black box' owned by the government,
which will monitor all call traffic.” Quoting Franklin Cudjo,
Executive Director of IMANI Center for Policy Education,
“telecommunication monitoring equipment to monitor calls in the
country is against human dignity and privacy.”

But rights advocates would have to contend with equally strong
argument that unregistered SIM cards have encouraged consistent use of
telephones for criminal purposes. Since calls cannot be tracked,
criminals have found it a ready tool to aid robberies and kidnappings.

The issue is security, said President of the Association of
Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem
in Lagos. “Security has to take precedence over business,” said
Ekuwem. He has been at the forefront of the campaign to have SIM cards
registered believing it helps in providing an accessible database on
citizens in the absence of any at the moment and also to help improve
security. Kidnappers negotiate conditions for the release of their
prey with the family of the victim and the Police. They leave everyone
helpless because the SIM cards cannot be traced or tracked.
With increasing cases of kidnappings across the country, Police
authorities say SIM card registration could reduce the incident by
over 90%. In all cases of kidnappings in the last few years,
Kidnappers have negotiated for ransom and release of their victims
through mobile phones, said a senior Police official in Lagos.

The NCC, expressing government’s longing, has ruled out going back on
its decision to end the culture of unregistered SIM cards on
networks. For now, SIM cards are not registered and users cannot be
effectively traced to the location where they are originating calls.
NCC said it is ushering in a new regime of proper call auditing for
security and statistical purpose that will allow for ‘a proper record
of telephone subscribers in the country and to be able to identify and
trace telephone users in case of a criminal conduct. The exercise will
require verification with e-passports or drivers' licences or tax
cards and company identification cards with a pension or tax number
among others.’ Proxy registration shall be restricted to the direct
families of persons seeking registration.

Under the new deal, all new subscribers would be expected to provide
proof of identity when subscribing to a new SIM card while existing
subscribers would have six months to register their existing SIM cards
or face disconnection. From May, authorized dealer and other sellers
of SIM cards, must get security details of every buyer and forward
such details to the operating company who must register the details
against the SIM card before activating it. Automatic activation will
cease to exist.

Beyond security, ATCON thinks the SIM card registration exercise will
help address the absence of data or disjointed data on the citizens.
In Nigeria once heavily under-served telephone market, the explosion
of phone subscription from below 500, 000 for a population of 150
million as at 2001 to about 70 million as at December 2009, has not
been properly documented. The country missed a golden opportunity to
build a central database of its citizens.

According to ATCON, “Millions of Nigerians move around the country
anonymously, and this, perhaps, is the only country where the absence
of data is so grave that no two government agencies share common
information and data of Nigerian citizens. From birth, through
schools, work places, and general adult life, individual history is
segmented, distorted or untraceable. In the present circumstance, SIM
card registration is not only important, but also should be done now
or never.”

In Nigeria, operators greatest fear is potential loss of revenues. An
end to the era where SIM could be purchase on the street is likely t
cut down on networks’ revenue. Reduced revenue is likely from end of
direct sales of SIM cards from on streets and open markets as is
usually the case now. The conspicuous SIM card hawkers on the streets
of many Nigerian cities will have to forget the business as such SIMs
may not get activated.

While SIM card registration came with little controversy in South
Africa and Tanzania, in Botswana, government contended with much
criticism to get the process implemented out of fear that it has
political agenda to use SIM card data to restrain its critics. But an
unyielding Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) which started
registration of all SIM cards in September 2008 eventually ended the
exercise last year December 2009 and started disconnecting all
unregistered lines.
The BTA most caustic critic was the media fearing “the new measure
will give security agents to put journalists on surveillance” though
the BTA had consistently argued that the process was intended
“purposely to track down criminals bent on using cell phones to commit
crimes [and] provide a greater database of market information of
mobile phones technology in the Southern African country thus ending
dispute around the market leader.”


 

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