120,000 mobile phone numbers disabled

The Cameroonian subsidiary of South Africa’s Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN-Cameroon) has disabled the numbers of 120,000 subscribers for failing to identify themselves on time.Meanwhile, MTN, through an outreach campaign, undertook to carry out the systematic identification of its subscribers, through media campaigns, registration with street agents or its sales points.

Last April, the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) asked mobile phone operators in the country to disable all numbers with false identifications.

According to the regulator, 77 percent of active mobile subscribers are currently identified in Cameroon out of 15 million subscribers.

Cameroon has a population of 22 million.

Thanks to the identification exercise launched since December, 2015, a little over 5,000 numbers (2.31 percent) were found unclaimed, 800 (10 percent) with doubtful identification, 250 (12 percent) assets without any identification.

For the ART, mobile subscribers must always provide their full name, address, type of ID, ID number with the activation date of their phone number as part of the national identification process due to end in June.