Nairobi, Sept. 1 -- Telecommunications firms, including Safaricom and Airtel, will be blocked from reselling dormant SIM cards until a six-month window lapses, adding compliance obligation costs for networks that have been recycling inactive lines after three months.

For subscribers, the move will give them more control over their lines as they will be able to go for longer without making purchases of services such as calls before they lose their SIM cards.

New rules proposed by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) require the service providers to contact owners of dormant SIM cards and give them three more months to revive their lines - typically through making new purchases of airtime and data.

The telcos will publish lists of ...