The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card is a circuitry module that stores the subscriber's information and connects the subscriber's phone to the mobile network operator's (MNO) communication systems. A SIM card is an essential unit in a cellular communication system. It plays a vital role in voice, data, and many other value-added services for the MNOs. Subscribers must provide their data upon SIM purchase before the modules' services are activated. The role of the SIM in communication is critical because, without the module, one cannot access any service provided by the MNOs. The process that links the subscriber's personal information to his SIM is called SIM registration
Furthermore, the registration exercise further helps combat crime, such as SIMBox fraud. Therefore, SIM registration is essential for both the subscriber and the MNO, as enshrined in the Legislative Instrument (LI) 2006 for the subscriber identity SIM of Ghana in 2011. This paper proposes a new SIM registration framework with an integrated cognitive system to prevent pre-registration and fake registration. The proposed registration platform is an advanced SIM registration framework that offers all the MNOs a common platform to monitor the process of new registration and the statistical summary of valid registered subscribers.
A mandatory SIM registration exercise between 2008 and 2011 saw countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, etc., initialize the SIM registration process with much effort and assistance from the respective regulatory national authorities
Succinctly, this paper presents a theoretical model for an automated SIM registration system using cognitive computing technology to augment, accelerate, and scale human expertise to enable a new era of genuine human-machine collaboration in the SIM registration process. It is instructive to note that cognitive systems are not programmed but are instead trained, acquiring knowledge through experience and improving with time
In other words, the systems can determine the meaning of data inputs - structured and unstructured, text-based, or sensory - by interpreting context and classifying the data as information or knowledge. Furthermore, the system can also learn continuously, accumulating data and insight through human interactions to provide an efficient automated registration system.
There are few written academic papers on mandatory SIM registration in Ghana. Other African countries, such as Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Cameroon, have implemented mandatory SIM card schemes
Sub-Saharan Africa ranks among the top regions in terms of the high penetration rate of internet utility and the growth of mobile phone users. The success of mobile telephony is attributed to the opening of private players' markets and lenient regulatory policy. However, markets may be increasingly saturated, and new regulations introduced across Africa could negatively impact future growth. For example, since 2006, most countries in the African-Sub region have introduced mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards with their identity details. This potentially increases the costs of using mobile telephony. Herein, a fixed-effects model for estimating the impact of mandatory registration on mobile subscription penetration growth is presented based on a panel dataset of 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2000 to 2010. The results show that the introduction of mandatory registration depresses growth in mobile penetration. Further, the potential impact of compulsory registration on competition and consumer privacy is critically discussed
Subscribers of mobile telephony services in Africa in the early 2000s did not have to register their SIM. However, in recent years, concerns regarding using mobile phones for illegal purposes have led to several opinions to adopt comprehensive measures to mitigate fraud in the mobile communication space
Security agencies such as the criminal investigations department (CID) and the cybersecurity unit mostly find it extremely difficult to investigate a crime committed with fake registered SIM and related offences. For instance, SIMBox fraud, Mobile money fraud and scratch card theft are ascending in Ghana. Still, the security agencies mandated to handle such crimes have no clue where to begin the investigations because the SIM used by these criminals were registered with fake information. This has made it extremely difficult for security agencies to combat crime involving mobile money, mobile banking and related cases.
This study identified two major SIM registration flaws: false identity and pre-registered SIM registrations. Pre-registered SIM is when agents mandated registration officers of the MNOs, of MNOs, intentionally use fake information to register SIM cards, activate the services on the SIM and sell to unsuspecting subscribers. The danger here is that the subscriber's detail will not be found in the MNO's database in case of fraud or crime. Moreover, when there is a loss of SIM, the subscriber is expected to prove his identity, which usually does not match the information on the pre-registered SIM
In the last nationwide SIM registration exercise in 2011, some MNO agents who operated in part of the country connived with fraudsters and allowed them to register SIMs with fake identity cards. These agents primarily did not demand identification numbers and pictures of subscribers before registration, and even when they did, the identification numbers of the subscribers provided were not verifiable. As a result, MNOs and the security agencies found it extremely difficult to track and prevent those involved in the false identity SIM registration regarding these falsified registration processes. This SIM registration process is a recipe for disaster in the mobile communications ecosystem because those who possess fake registered SIMs usually use fraudulent means to commit criminal activities
The severity of improper SIM registration techniques in Africa and other low and middle-income countries has become a significant problem that governments, financial institutions, and other civil society organizations are battling to find a lasting solution. To ensure subscriber-based data monitoring and evaluation, SIM registration has not been done efficiently in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. An adequately registered SIM can be used to track the activities of criminals. When fraudsters notice the SIM card acquisition process is subject to stringent requirements, they are likely to focus on countries with less strict requirements
Some African countries, including the Ghana government, have announced that all mobile networks' subscribers must re-register their SIM cards again. The government's new directive is part of moves to fight mobile money fraud, which has gained momentum over the past few years. The SIM re-registration exercise was supposed to have rolled out in 2019. However, this general SIM registration was considered to be rolled out but without any contingency plan to mitigate the fake registrations. This paper proposes an integrated registration scheme of SIM registration with the national identification card. Hence, there is a need for an automated cognitive SIM registration framework to ensure that all unregistered SIMs can not be activated. The state telecommunications regulatory agencies such as the National Communication Authority (NCA), must verify the subscriber details before the MNOs activate registered SIM cards.
Fraud involves deceit to illegally or unethically gain at the expense of another. The act includes theft, misuse of property, corruption, the alteration of services or other records or any unauthorized activity which results directly or indirectly in gain, whether financial or otherwise, to the perpetrator or a third party. Fraud can be perpetrated against the MNOs, subscribers, suppliers, government agencies or departments, or the public
The detection and prevention of fraudulent activities are only possible where strong control structures are constantly applied. Routine checks and monitoring mechanism to ensure that procedures are being followed is essential. Implementation of a cognitive system in the telecommunications industry has added firm management control. The cognitive system's prime responsibility to detect and prevent fraud in the industry is to foster an 'anti-fraud automated cognitive system
The rate at which criminals and some MNO staff defraud mobile service subscribers has reached an alarming stage. Mobile telephony services, such as mobile money, which has been touted as an innovative technology that brings banking to the doorstep of the unbanked, are turning out to be a monster that is depriving most people of their little money
It has been estimated by
The National Communication Authority (NCA), as an authorized body, is mandated to monitor and regulate the MNOs in Ghana; the authority also ensures the MNOs implement proper SIM registration standards. In this paper, NCA has been assigned a specific regulatory task. It must be directly involved in the automated SIM registration process to be implemented in Ghana to ensure full compliance with the automated registration scheme. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) protocol shall be created as a common platform to link NCA, MNOs and subscribers' interactions. The integrated platform will offer all stakeholders the opportunity to interact with each other smoothly. The intelligent registration system will enable new subscribers to access the automated registration system by texting their National Identification (NID) number to a short code for verification, authorization and registration by NCA and MNO respectively. NCA has been given the sole responsibility and privileges to manage and implement specific authentication mechanisms to verify new subscribers to prevent malicious people from using someone's NID to register. The new SIM registration process is based on cognitive learning science. It has an embedded intelligent system to identify and prevent fake SIM registration and make things difficult for fraudsters to carry out any criminal activity like SIMBox and mobile money fraud.
As presented in
1. Start new SIM registration
2. Send short code to NCA
3. NCA create ticket
4. Select service
5. if (service = = check status) then
6. Process check status
7. else if (service = = replacement) then
8. Process SIM replacement
9. else if (service = = SIM registration) then
10. Select network
11. SIM verification by NIA/BDR
12. if (SIM verification is unsuccessful) then
13. Goto step 11
14. else
15. Generate UID
16. NCA requests user UID
17. NCA send user data to MNO
18. MNO request SIM PUK from the user
19. MNO registry
20. MNO alert NCA about new SIM registration
21. if (NCA is unable to verify SIM) then
22. Goto step 10
23. else
24. MNO activate SIM
25. User receives confirmation
26. NCA closes tickets
27. End SIM registration
28. else
29. Stop
A dashboard is an information management tool that visually tracks, analyzes and displays key performance indicators (KPI), metrics and key data points to monitor a business's health, department or specific process. Dashboards are customizable to meet the particular needs of a department and company. The Dashboard has two ends; at the back end, which is the view behind the scenes, the tool connects to institutional files, attachments, services and APIs, but at the surface, it displays the data in the form of tables, line charts, bar charts and gauges. The cognitive dashboard h designed to have a well-built Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
A data dashboard is the most efficient way to track multiple data sources from the various state institutions and the MNOs because it provides a central location for NCA to monitor and analyze performance and the SIM registration progress. The Dashboard will have real-time monitoring of current registrations' progress to reduce the long hours of data. The Dashboard has an integrated display unit that outputs the cognitive system's computational learning and decision-making. These are some of the information to be displayed: The statistics of registered subscribers on a real-time basis, A determining index that displays a graphical representation of the market share of the MNOs, real-time information on the progress of SIM registration
The government of Ghana has directed that the first step to acquiring a national ID card in Ghana is to first register with the National Identification Authority (NIA). NIA is mandated by law to provide national ID cards to citizens. The mandate of the NIA is to create a national database of all citizens and foreigners with digital identities. NIA in the recent registration in 2020 issued national ID to individuals who fulfilled the basic requirement for registration by providing the information such as: Name/Gender, Date/Place/ District/Region/ Nationality of Birth, Occupation/Religion/Denomination/Education, Residential Digital Address/TIN/SSN/Tel.#, Marital Status/Spouse/Children, Car#/House#/Passport#, Biometric features/passport photograph.
The growth of high-speed internet connectivity has made it possible for data transmissions to be achieved through a secure transmission system
The computational memory of ASRM supports cognitive learning and autonomous attention (unsupervised learning) focused on the direct learning of a specific task in the ASRM processes. The combination of unsupervised learning schemes aims to address the challenges in the existing SIM registration processes and implement automated reasoning and decision-making system. The proposed model has theoretical been designed to overcome the shortfalls in the current SIM registration method as indicated in the literature
The study presents a comparative analysis between ASRM and other existing models. The key components the study considered for the comparative analysis includes cognitive reasoning (CR), system robustness (SR), verification (V), security (S), implementation (I) and Usability (U) for the Integrated SIM Registration (ISIM), and Unified Subscribers' SIM Registration (USSR).
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Visitors who plan to stay within 30 days can register for a new SIM using their passport and temporal residence address. However, to ensure that visitors/foreigners are not mistreated if their stay is prolonged, they can submit a permit to Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) for SIM re-activation for the next 30/60 days. Visitors' SIM registration can not be used beyond 90 days period; else, the visitor must apply for a resident permit GIS.
The proposed system is a new model, and if implemented in the real world, it will solve several problems, including tracking criminals and crime rate reduction. The work's novelties are the modelling of an automated SIM registration system, monitoring statistics of registered subscribers on a real-time basis, A determining index to display a graphical representation of the market share of the MNO, and real-time information on the progress of SIM registration.
The MNOs must ensure that subscribers' privacy is always protected. The situation where MNOs release subscriber details to third-party companies must be addressed by NCA. NCA must also ensure that any Telco that releases its subscriber information to a third-party marketing organization shall receive some form of stern punishment and the subscribers involved compensated appropriately. The introduction of punitive measures will deter the networks from releasing such data. Until this is done, MNOs will not enforce policies that protect subscriber data. A mix of disciplinary and reward actions can be applied to MNOs who flout or enforce their privacy policies. The implementation of the proposed solution will go a long way to sanitize the entire SIM registration process in Ghana.