The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) on Friday imposed fines to the tune of 5 million U.S. dollars to mobile phone operators for violation of subscriber identification module (SIM) cards registration rules.
James Kilaba, TCRA Director General, mentioned the fined mobile phone operators as Airtel, Vodacom, Tigo, Zantel, Halotel and Smart, adding that the fines should be paid before October 14, this year.
Kilaba said the mobile phone operators were found with eight different offences related to registration of SIM cards. Kilaba linked the increased tidal wave of crime incidences in the country to malpractices in SIM card registration as most of the incidences involved the use of mobile phones.
"TCRA conducted investigations to verify whether the operators were complying with SIM card registration requirements," he told a news conference in the capital Dar es Salaam.
He said the six mobile phone operators violated the Electronic and Postal Communications Act, 2010 and the Electronic and Postal Communication (Licensing) Regulation of 2011 by selling and registering SIM cards without demanding identity cards from buyers, and registering the SIM cards with unauthorized identity cards.
Identity cards required for SIM card registration include national IDs, a Zanzibar resident ID, a driving licence, a passport or a voter's ID, said Kilaba.
He said the operators were also found with other offences including registering SIM cards without taking photos of subscribers and confirming their particulars.
"The operators activated SIM cards without comparing subscriber's photo on IDs and the one taken during registration, allowing SIM cards to be registered using other person's identification documents and activating them without being properly registered," said Kilaba.
Mwigulu Nchemba, the Minister for Home Affairs, recently told the National Assembly in Dodoma that criminal incidences had increased by 7 percent.
According to Nchemba, from July 2016 to March 2017, there were 2,470 murder incidents reported during which 2,532 people were killed by criminals countrywide.
He said from July last year to March this year, police reported 56,913 criminal cases, where 53,850 cases were reported in Tanzania mainland and 3,063 were reported in the Zanzibar archipelago.
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