Buganda Road Court, Utilities and Communications Division has remanded Geoffrey Kasule, the mastermind of Sim Box fraud against Airtel Uganda to Luzira Prison.
Kasule was arrested together with five others in an operation by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Airtel Uganda and the Police. His other counterparts were released on bail.
The operation was mounted after a tipoff by Airtel officials who had intercepted an uncharacteristic call from United Kingdom to Uganda.
The call, on the receiver’s handset, indicated a local dialing code yet the caller was abroad and their phones were not roaming.
Kasule was charged with unauthorized use or interception of computer service contrary to section 15 of the Computer Misuse Act.
He was also charged with electronic fraud contrary to section 19 of the Computer Misuse Act, and operation of a telecommunications system without a license contrary to section 78 and 22 of the UCC Act all of which he pleaded guilty to.
He has been sent to Luzira and is expected to appear back in court on June 16th for sentencing.
What is Sim Boxing?
SIM Box fraud is where an operator routes international calls through the Voice over IP (VoIP) connection and connects the call as local traffic.
It’s done using a device known as the SIM box.
A SIM box contains a number of SIM cards, which are linked to the gateway but housed and stored separately from it.
It can have SIM cards of different mobile operators installed, permitting it to operate with several GSM gateways located in different places.
This allows the box’s operator to bypass international rates and often undercut prices charged by local mobile network operators.
The practice is not common in Uganda.