Tanzania set to release figures on fake mobile phone handsets

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) said on Sunday it will soon release figures on fake mobile phone handsets now being used in the east African nation, the region's second largest economy.

Innocent Mungy, TCRA communications manager, said a survey carried in 2012 indicated that at least 38 percent of the handsets in use then were fake.

Many sub-standard and counterfeit mobile phone products entered the local market illegally and that it has been difficult to control such influx, Mungy told a news conference in the country's tourist epicenter of Arusha.

He said TCRA has started a public sensitization campaign and that it has started to pay-off following reduction of such products.

Under the exercise, the clients were told how to identify the fake products from the genuine ones, added Mungy.

Sayyida Mohamed, a communication expert with TCRA, said a system has been developed that would ensure fake mobile phones were not registered.

TCRA northern zone manager Annette Matindi called on the mobile phone users to cooperate with the authorities in fighting the entry of fake mobile handsets in the local market.

TCRA announced in February 2016 that Tanzania was set to switch off all counterfeit mobile phones on June 16 this year in a move aimed at protecting consumers from substandard phones, safeguard mobile payment systems and prevent crime.

The move came at a time when estimates showed that 40 percent of mobile phone users in the country used fake handsets.

Mobile networks will also be forbidden from activating new counterfeit devices bought after the switch-off deadline.

The communication regulatory authority said the authority has already launched a new system dubbed Central Equipment Identification Register, which is database of the International Mobile Equipment Identity numbers of blacklisted handsets. Endit