Lagos, March 6, 2024 – Telecom operators are planning to begin the second phase of phone line disconnection on March 31.
Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said this on Tuesday.
He told journalists that the second phase of SIM card disconnection would focus on subscribers who submitted their NIN, but the name on the NIN did not correspond with the names on the multiple SIM cards that are linked to the NIN.
“All SIM cards without NIN have been disconnected, and it took us five days to disconnect 42 million of such SIM cards, according to the regulatory directive from NCC.
“We expect affected subscribers to provide their NIN, verify it with their SIM registration records in order to get their SIM cards re-connected. This is the first phase of disconnection.
“The second phase disconnection, which will begin March 31, will be focused on those that submitted their NIN, but the name on the NIN did not match with the names on the multiple SIM cards that are already attached to the NIN,” he said.
Adebayo said the telecoms operators had commenced sensitising subscribes by sending them messages to verify their NIN-SIM linkage before March 31.
He said the operators had commenced reconnection of SIM cards of those subscribers that had submitted their NINs and had them linked and verified.
He said he would not be able to give the exact number of re-connected SIM cards, until audit report has been submitted to the NCC. (GBN)
