Zambia's telecom sector regulator, the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA), has warned that some subscribers, especially along the line of rail, are intercepting and diverting national and international voice or data traffic from the operators' network.
ZICTA has noted an increase in SIM boxing, or the illegal action of using a SIM box, installed with a number of SIM cards, sometimes from different mobile phone operators, to route international calls and connect them as local traffic to avoid paying international rates.
Hansford Chaaba, ZICTA public relations officer, this has the potential to compromise national security.
"As a regulator of information and communication technology sector, we would like to inform members of the public that SIM boxing is against the law, and that the user of the service, the provider of the service and facilitators are committing a criminal offence and can be prosecuted," Chaaba said.
He added that ZICTA is working with the Zambia Police Service, mobile phone service providers and other law enforcement agencies and is doing everything possible - including the development of technical measures, to combat the problem and bring perpetrators to book.
The warning on SIM boxing comes just a week after ZICTA announced that it had disconnected and fined five unlicensed international data transit operators for reportedly using ZESCO, the country's power utility company's infrastructure, to offer digital communication services to local unregistered ISPs.
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