After the Government threatened to jail Kenyan telco CEO’s over unregistered SIM cards Safaricom reacted yesterday evening by blocking unregistered SIM cards. In the process they also blocked even registered SIM cards which inconvenienced many users who took to social media to share their displeasure. It seems that only prepaid customers were affected.
What's happening @SafaricomLtd? I cant call; msg is that my lines not registered. I know it is: so what's up? @Safaricom_Care? @RonnieOsumba
— Ngunjiri Wambugu (@ngunjiriwambugu) October 8, 2013
@SafaricomLtd @Safaricom_Care l can't call, what is this nonsense that my phone is not registered? This is crazy!!
— Pollyne Owoko (@owokopollyne) October 8, 2013
Guys reporting their lines have been disconnected in the last few minutes.
— DÄ™nnÃs Ökarà (@DennisOkari) October 8, 2013
The blocked registered SIM cards were not able to receive or send calls, send or receive SMS’s or use MPESA but data was working. Those who tried to make a call while the lines were called got a voice message teeling them that their line wasn;t registered and they should visit a Safaricom customer care center or go to an MPESA agent to register their line.
I too was a victim but my SIM card started working again after an hour of being offline.
Safaricom hasn’t offered an explanation as to why they blocked the registered numbers and they are only saying that they had a network problem.
@MacOtani Hi, we had a network problem countrywide which has now been resolved. Kindly restart your phone. ^MO @Joegachira
— Safaricom Limited (@SafaricomLtd) October 9, 2013
This measure was taken after Safaricom’s CEO insisted in a joint press conference that there were no unregistered SIM cards on their network. Check out snippets of the joint press conference in the video below: