UCC directs telecom companies to switch back all deactivated phone numbers

By Benjamin Jumbe

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has directed all telecom companies to switch back all phone numbers which had been deactivated.

This follows a directive by President Yoweri Museveni to have all registered subscribers whose sim cards had been deactivated reactivated giving them upto 30 August to validate their registration.

Now addressing journalists after a meeting with telecom operators this morning, the UCC executive director Godfrey Mutabazi said between 2-4m subscribers were switched off on Friday and following the presidential directive which has been received they are to be switched back on immediately.

He says they have about 19M Sim Cards registered with National Identification Numbers (NINs), expressing concern over the capacity of the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) to handle all the 23M subscribers before the deadline.

NIRA has capacity to work on 1000 NIN verification per day and it is not clear whether they will have sorted the 4 million affected within the extension period.

Written by David Kugonza