Guinea’s Regulatory Authority for Post and Telecommunications (L’Autoritie de Regulation des Postes et Telecommunications, ARPT) has announced that it will begin deactivating unregistered SIM cards from 2 May. During a press conference on 2 March, ARPT director general Yacouba Cisse explained that Decision D/001/ARPT/CNRPT/2021, which entered into force on 31 December 2020, requires subscribers to provide a national identity card, passport or voter card as proof of identity, with each subscriber entitled to register a maximum of three SIM cards per operator. Telecoms operators will be liable for a fine of GNF10 million (USD979,550) for any SIM card or internet account activated without the required ID.
Although Article 36 Paragraph 2 of Law L/2015/018/AN of 13 August 2015 relating to telecommunications and information technologies already stipulated that ‘operators of telecommunications networks or services open to the public are obliged systematically to identify their subscribers’, the regulator stressed the tougher approach will bring Guinea into line with international standards and allow it to combat terrorism, fraud and other criminal activity.