MOBILE PHONE OPERATORS SEEK HELP FROM POST OFFICE

Mozambique's two mobile phone operators, the publicly-owned Mcel and the South African Vodacom, are negotiating with the Mozambique post office to use its services in the registration of sim cards demanded by the government. There have been no results from the negotiations so far, but the chairperson of the Post Office board, Luis Rego, said the company understands the importance of using the network of post offices to reach areas where neither M-Cel nor Vodacom have any shops. Cited in Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, Rego confirmed that his company has been approached by both operators for the use of its facilities to register the largest possible number of mobile phone users, since post offices exist in most of the country’s 128 districts.Though some details are still under discussion, notably how much the two mobile phone operators will pay for these services, the Post Office has already been seeing which of its branches possess the basic material needed for registration – such as photocopiers needed to take copies of the mobile phone users’ identity documents.Although the Post Office certainly has a larger network than either M-Cel or Vodacom, it is not present in every district, let alone every administrative post or locality. The minimum requirements to carry out the government’s registration demands are electricity, a photocopier, paper and toner. Finding these in sufficient quantities in all the districts is a considerable challenge And, of course, M-Cel and Vodacom must provide the Post Office with sufficient copies of the registration forms, which must then be transported to the districts.The demand for compulsory sim card registration was sprung on the mobile phone operators by a government decree published on 15 September. M-Cel and Vodacom were given just two months to register almost seven million clients. Both companies have warned the government that this deadline is almost impossible to meet, and that the registration imposes enormous costs that they have not budgeted for.Neither M-Cel nor Vodacom have announced how many of their clients have registered their sim cards so far.