The rise of African SIM registration

The emerging dynamics of regulatory change

Bibliographic Data

ID15114362
AuthorsKevin P Donovan (0000-0002-3922-236X, University of Cape Town), Aaron Martins (0009-0000-4073-9182), Aaron K Martin
Year2014
Publication date2014-01-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFirst Monday (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1396-0458 • E-ISSN: 1396-0466
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Libraries (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5210/fm.v19i2.4351
OpenAlexW3125342615
LanguageEN
Citations received18

The African experience with mobile telephony has been extolled as a defining moment in the continent’s contemporary economic, social, and political development. Yet SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) registration schemes are threatening to throttle the technology’s developmental potential. These mandates, which require the registration of identity information to activate a mobile SIM card, are fast becoming universal in Africa, with little to no public debate about the wider social or political effects. Whereas some authors have explored the motivations behind these drives, as well as their potential economic impacts, this paper focuses its critique on the broader diversity of implications of this regulatory transformation. Viewing SIM registration through a lens that combines surveillance studies and information & communication technologies for development, it examines elements of resistance across a range of actors, as well as other emerging effects like access barriers, linkages to financialization, and Africa’s budding mobile surveillance society

Economics · Emerging technologies · Financialization · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Computer Science · FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance · ICT Impact and Policies · ICT in Developing Communities