The Rica process was said to have cost the mobile telecoms industry in excess of R500-million, as mobile operators worked to ensure that subscribers registered with relevant details before the cut-off date of Thursday, June 30, at midnight.

MTN South Africa MD Karel Pienaar said that MTN had spent about R200-million on the process, which included significant advertising and media campaigns, incentive give-aways, and employment of additional human resources.

Vodacom acting MD Vuyani Jarana said that it too had spent “hundreds of millions” on ensuring that its customers registered their SIM cards and would not face having their services blocked.

The upside, said the operators, was that the process had created jobs, for example, companies had employed ‘Rica agents’ who worked within a community and received R3 for every person whose details were captured. It was also another opportunity for operators to interact with their customers.

As of Wednesday, in the postpaid segment 98% of MTN subscribers had registered, 98.4% of Vodacom subscribers had registered, and 99% of Cell C subscribers had registered.

In the prepaid segment, 96% of MTN subscribers had registered, 93.6% of Vodacom subscribers had registered, and 94% of Cell C subscribers had registered.

Operators did not expect significant revenue losses owing to unregistered SIM cards being blocked.

Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt said that possible revenue loss would be minimal because subscribers that had not registered, were the ones that did not use their mobile phones very much. However he was still hopeful that unregistered users would register before the cut-off.

No extensions would be granted, as happened prior to the previous cut-off date in December 2010, and Deputy Communications Minister Obed Bapela urged owners of SIM cards that had not been registered to do so by midnight.

He added that 95% of South Africans had gone through the Rica process.

This equated to some 37-million existing SIM and data cards registered, which left an outstanding number of about 2.7-million unregistered cards.

Rica – the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act – requires all SIM cards to be registered. The process was expected to eliminate criminal elements buying SIM cards easily and discarding them when no longer needed. It gave law enforcement agencies access to certain information, however, operators emphasised that the information on their databases was heavily secured and privacy was guaranteed.

It was an offence to share these details with anyone other than law enforcement agencies.

The mobile operators would extend operating hours of their stores to midnight on June 30, and would also deploy additional Rica points in more rural areas, in locations such as schools, where gazebos would be erected.