The Communications Commission of Uganda (UCC) has threatened to revoke Africell's operating license, alleging the company has failed to adhere to new guidelines on SIM card registration.

In correspondence to the company, UCC executive director Godfrey Mutabazi said the operator had ignored a directive that prohibits the sale of SIM cards in "ungazetted places" as directed by the UCC in March.

The UCC has also accused Africell of selling SIM cards via street vendors and mobile agents which it said was in total disregard of its directive.

Mutabazi said Africell's actions "amount to serious and repeated breach of its licence agreement."

However, Africell PRO Edgar Kamaragi refuted the allegations.

Kamaragi said the incident referred to by UCC pertains to remote areas where SIM card registration was completed with on-the-spot biometric verification and live validation by the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), in accordance with the UCC.

The UCC recently confirmed it had provided connectivity to the Application Programming Interface (API) at the NIRA where operators can match and conduct real-time online verification of customer information with the national identification database.

Mutabazi has since given Africell 60 days in which to show cause why the licence should not be suspended.