Telcom firms to turn off users of fake phones on Sunday

Users of counterfeit mobile handsets have up to midnight on Sunday to acquire genuine sets or face termination of services from network operators.

Communications Commission of Kenya has given instructions to all four mobile operators in the country to disconnect from their network any handset that is not type-approved for use in the country.

And unlike in the past when the commission has reneged on the move several times, CCK director-general Francis Wangusi has remained adamant that this time there will be no extension of the deadline, and any handset found to be counterfeit will be switched off after midnight.

Big threat

“We want to assure Kenyans that we are not going back on this process any more because the fake gadgets are a big threat both to personal and national security. Unchecked, these gadgets have the potential to drive down the drain all the mobile money innovations the country is famed for,” Mr Wangusi told journalists last week.

The commission has created a database in liaison with phone manufacturers and the GSM Association for use by subscribers to verify the status of their handset. The same database is what will be used by the mobile operators to determine whether your phone is counterfeit.

Over the last three months CCK embarked on an extensive awareness campaign to encourage consumers to ditch the counterfeit phones and acquire genuine items.

“We are satisfied that we have done enough consumer education on the switch-off, and we are set to effect it now. We signed a memorandum of understanding with the GSMA giving us access to their database which is updated often. Mobile operators can access it and have pledged their support in this move especially because fake handsets also affect the efficiency of their networks,” Mr Wangusi said.

Subscribers can still confirm the status of their handset by sending an SMS bearing the 15-digit code unique to each handset (also known as the International Mobile Equipment Identifier) to 1555. A reply message confirms the make of your phone and the manufacturer.

From midnight, mobile operators will check whether the handsets using their networks are in the mobile identification register developed from the database and disconnect fake phones from their services immediately.

Safaricom, which leads the sector by subscriber base, told the Sunday Nation the switch-off will be done in batches of 20,000 phones over a period of 15 hours beginning at midnight.

The company believes there are about 670,000 fake handsets in its network; the figure fell from 1.5 million at the beginning of the year.

All four local mobile operators have, for the first time, demonstrated an industry-wide unity with the regulator in their willingness to switch off the counterfeit handsets despite the expected negative effect on their revenues.

In a press conference last week, all the chief executive officers from the four mobile operators in the country pledged their support for the move and vowed to deny their services to all subscribers using the fake phones.

“It may have an impact on our revenues because we are likely to lose some customers in the move, but it is worth it. We are going to work hand in hand with the CCK in this decision because it concerns the welfare of our subscribers,” Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore said.

Telkom Orange chief executive Michael Ghossein and his yu counterpart Madhur Taneja also affirmed that they will block all subscribers from using fake phones on their networks.

“We have a substantial number of counterfeits on our networks, but we can’t compromise our customers’ security for anything; we will have to switch them off,” said Mr Taneja.

Airtel Kenya chief executive Shivan Bhargava said the company would not tolerate the use of the counterfeit handsets on its network either and called on government to put in place measures to ensure that no more fake devices make their way in to the country.

According to Mr Wangusi, CCK has set a budget to meet the costs incurred by operators in effecting the switch off but the consumers will not be compensated.