Uganda to Switch Off Fake Phones By July 2013

Uganda Communications commission has post-poned the planned switch-off of “fake” mobile devices until 1 July 2013. The country planned to switch-off all fake phones by the end of November 2012.

Kenya carried out a switch-off in October affecting thousands of subscribers.

UCC claim that about 30% of the country’s 17 million mobile handsets are imitation of popular brands. The regulator has also given subscribers until March 2013 to register their lines.

Now Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania are also planning to ban fake phones to curb criminal activities and have only quality devices sold in the East Africa region.

In a related development, UCC is said to be planning to gazette new quality of service benchmarks for operators, as it seeks to manage complaints of low quality of services.

The parameters will see operators fined  for blocked & dropped calls as well as loss of network coverage. The regulations will also see operators forced to control unsolicited messages to subscribers and inappropriate content. They will also be asked to guard consumer privacy and increase transparency in pricing.