SIM registration

NICTA seeks dismissal of SIM deactivation case

Justice David Cannings adjourned the motion, filed by NICTA, Communications Minister Sam Basil and the state, to 7 September.

Lawyers for the three parties filed the motion on July 30 in response to Kramer’s motion that was filed on July 25.

They will be asking the court to dismiss the proceeding.

Justice Cannings adjourned the motion on Tuesday after refusing injunctive orders Kramer sought restraining unregistered SIM cards from being deactivated as of today.

SIM deactivation begins at August 1

NICTA CEO Charles Punaha has announced this in Port Moresby.

He said the deactivation process will commence this Wednesday in all provincial centres, with a final list to be announced later in the week.

He also announced the extensions to rural areas in the country so that telco providers may be able to continue registrations in remote areas.

Telco providers say the deactivation process will not affect people from rural areas travelling into main provincial centres as they are able to monitor SIMs used in a locality.

Save Your SIM, register today!

That was the message from the new Digicel PNG Vice President, Lorna McPherson, when she called on all Digicel SIM holders to register their SIM card before the end of July.

“You cannot take any chances, it must be done and it needs to be done right now.” Said Lorna.

“This is a government directive, and we need to take heed of their decision. So come the end of July we will deactivate any SIM cards that are not registered.” Lorna added.

To avoid this it will simply take five minutes of your time register your SIM at any Digicel outlet today.

Countdown has already begun!

There won't be any further extensions, and Digicel has started to test systems to deactivate un-registered SIMs.

In an interview with the Digicel PNG Senior Vice President, Lorna McPherson, customers have been reminded that failure to register their SIM cards would mean that they would be cut off from connecting to the Digicel network. 

“You won’t be able to make a call, you won’t be able to SMS, you won’t be able to go on the internet; your SIM won’t work,” said McPherson.

2mil Digicel customers reminded to register SIM

As the largest mobile network provider in PNG, the telecommunication firm is reminding its customers that the countdown is now on.

There won't be any further extensions, and Digicel has started to test systems to deactivate un-registered SIMs.

Digicel PNG Senior Vice President, Lorna McPherson, commented: “Our 2 million customers are very important to us, and we want to ensure they all remain connected. People still have time to register their SIM card and protect their number and connectivity.

SIM registration extended

Minister for Communication, information and technology and Energy, Sam Basil announced the extension this afternoon.

Meantime Digicel’s Regional CEO for the Pacific, Oliver Coughlan said Digicel now has over 6,000 people in the country registering sim cards, 2,000 of those are based in the rural areas.

Mr Coughlan said Digicel has registered over 1.4 million subscribers and is committed to register more.

Be practical with SIM registration approach: MP

He says 80 percent of the populace who live in the rural areas are burdened with the cost to travel into the city for such exercise, something he will be challenging in court.

With 80,000 subscribers in his electorate who are yet to register their SIM cards, he also says it will be difficult to impose such a responsibility with him.  

“I’m happy to sit down with NICTA and suggest some solutions in relation to SIM registration. But we have to be practical, we are not a developed country,” Kramer says.

NICTA restrained from deactivating SIM cards

The consented orders of the National Court were issued just before lunch time today at Waigani.

Member for Madang Bryan Kramer filed an urgent application yesterday, and today sought the stay.

NICTA's lawyer was not in any position to respond to the urgent application as he was only served this morning.

Kramer filed the case on Sunday following a conversation with a pediatrician based at the Modilon General Hospital on Saturday.

Hours away from SIM deactivation

The final announcement was made today by Chief Executive Officer of National Information and Communication Technology Authority, Charles Punaha.

NICTA has directed all mobile phone network operators to deactivate all unregistered subscribers by the end of April 30.

The deactivation exercise will be conducted nationwide.

“D-Day is tomorrow, 30th of April. By law all mobile phone network operators are required to start the deactivation process at midnight,” announced Punaha.

All deactivated numbers will be completely scraped off and automatically recycled.

No more SIM rego extension: Basil

Basil noted a spike in registration in December 2017, when the initial deadline was set for December 31st, 2017.

But with almost 1.5 million subscribers yet to be registered, the deadline was extended twice.

The current date is set for April 30.

The state and the National Information and Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) have partnered with the PNG Council of Churches to push the registration into the outmost parts of PNG using the churches’ network.