The National Communications Authority (NCA) on Thursday said the SIM Card registration exercises will not be extended beyond the March 3 deadline.

Mr. Paarock Vanpercy, NCA Director General emphasised that from March 3 all unregistered SIM cards would be de-activated...”no mobile network operator shall be able to activate a SIM card for a new customer without it having been registered.

“Also existing subscribers who have either not registered their SIM cards or whose earlier registrations are invalid are required to re-register, failing which their SIM cards will be de-activated”.

Speaking to newsmen in Accra, Mr Vanpercy said, NCA in collaboration with the Mobile Network Operators, had instituted a checking mechanism which works by simply texting your phone number to short code 400 of your service provider.

“A text sent to this number should come back with a reply indicating the status of the SIM card...if the subscriber is not validly registered it would require that the subscriber takes the necessary step of going to the office of the service provider to re-register using any a valid Identification card,” he said.

The NCA Director General noted that it was mandatory that any SIM card in use should be registered by the deadline of March 3 2012 after which any unregistered SIM card could not be in use.

He said it was therefore important for subscribers to ensure that their SIM cards were validly registered.

Mr Vanpercy reiterated that it was not the intention of the NCA to see even a single subscriber to lose the use of his or her SIM card....”the exercise itself is not meant to be punitive.

“Rather, it is meant to strengthen the consumer's contractual relationship with his or her network Operator. It is the NCA's expectation that subscribers will heed to this notice and ensure that their SIM cards are validly registered”.

On July 1, 2010, Ghana embarked on a SIM Card Registration Exercise which required users of mobile telephony services to register their SIM cards.

The exercise was from July 1 2010 to June 30 2011 at the end of which any SIM card that remained unregistered would be deactivated.

However at the end of the period it became evident that quite a number of subscribers had not followed the due process for the registration therefore their registrations could not be validated.

While some of the reasons for invalid registrations could be traced to the quality of subscriber information provided, others could be attributed to human error in the registration process, or plain deception on the part of subscribers and registration agents alike.

The NCA therefore extended the registration exercise to allow for invalid registrations to be corrected and indicated the Authority's resolve to ensuring that the exercise achieved a thoroughly sanitised and complete register.

Parliament at its sitting on February 1, 2012 adopted the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 2006) to give legal backing to SIM card registration.

Mr Vanpercy appealed to the media to assist NCA in raising awareness of the need to adhere to the deadline of March 3.