SIM Card Registration

SINCE the advent of the Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM), a lot of barriers to communication and information have been eliminated. Economic fortunes have been created for both subscribers and operators of the system who so far have been enjoying the large market base there is to tap.

THE worrisome trend however, is the use of telephones for unscrupulous activities and this is where the proposed Sim card registration by the Nigerian Communications Commission is an ideal arrangement to be put in place to check some negative trends which the introduction of GSM has brought about.

BY and large, the success rate in the GSM sector has been amazing as there are over 70 million subscribers, the operators are smiling to the banks with unprecedented patronage by the people.
THE Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) had held sway before the introduction of GSM but has been plagued by innumerable problems due to inefficiency.

WORKERS were owed salaries for months. However, the story is no longer about NITEL but about GSM providers. Its introduction was considered a big triumph by Nigerians after many rumours that the past military administrations had backed out of introducing the system because of the morbid fear of coup plotters.

INTERESTINGLY, Nigerians now save costs and lives from unwarranted travelling, as transactions can now be concluded on phones without moving an inch from your house.

AT their inception, MTN and former ECONET now Zain from VMohile sold for N20,000 and more, which as at then was still out of the reach of many Nigerians.

AS at today, however, sim cards are cheaper and newer phones are in the market at rock bottom prices and could be purchased by most Nigerians.

HOWEVER, GLO made its entrance at a time when a second national carrier was in dire need and has since then not disappointed Nigerians as a home grown GSM service provider. However, Visa, Zoom, Starcomms and lately Etisalat have also come with cheaper phone services.

SIGNIFICANTLY, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has over the period since the introduction of the GSM guided the market to what it is today.

DESPITE the robust growth of this sector, there are challenges and there are problems. Network failures is still a major problem and not all communities are yet to benefit from the GSM services. However the problem that is of top concern now is the telecom crime which poses a serious threat to the sector and society at large.

THE sector is larger than expected to the extent that operators now have fabulous rewards through promotions for its subscribers such as cars and T-shirts. Apart from being an off-shoot of stiffer competition, it is also an index of the wide-level of patronage which has been unprecedented.
IT is therefore clear that there is no market as large as Nigeria, not only in the Telecommunications market but also in other sectors.

AGAINST this background, THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER asserts that it is high time the NCC reappraises the performance of the GSM since its inception in Nigeria in order to break new grounds.
WHAT has been the impact of the GSM market against the background of the National Telecommunications Policy (NTP):

CURRENT figure puts the subscriber base in the telecommunications market at over 70 million.
IT is incontrovertible that Nigeria is the best market in the world so far in this area and should be able to streamline it to meet with the economic aspirations of the present administration.

AGAIN, what level of local input content can Nigeria boast of in the telecommunications industry. There is no doubt that this is one area where a lot of effort is needed to be put in place if the aspirations of the vision 20:2020 project is anything to go by.

THE Nigerian OBSERVER therefore, calls on the federal government to commence a holistic reappraisal of this sector if Nigeria is to achieve considerable progress in the acquisition of knowledge in communication technology as we march towards Vision 2020.

NIGERIA is on the right course and all hand should therefore be on deck to achieve speedic success in this sector. That is why the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card registration is a project that the NCC should do everything to accomplish.

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