Dubai: The UAE Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) will extend the first phase of the re-registration of mobile SIM cards across the emirates by another three months, Mohammad Al Ganem, Director General of TRA, told Gulf News.
“The UAE mobile subscribers who failed to update their personal data for the UAE operators, Etisalat and du, their network will not be disconnected and they will be given three months more to finalise registration procedures,” he said. “Mobile subscribers who got SMSes from the telecom service providers to update their personal information within three months and failed to do so, their mobile connection will not be disconnected.”
“But they will be given another three months to conclude their re-registration with the second phase,” he added.
TRA had launched the “My Number, My Identity” campaign in collaboration with the two licensees (etisalat and du) to increase awareness on the new registration procedures.
He added: “The new registration procedures will be considered as measures to protect the users’ rights against fraud, bad debt as well as criminal cases.”
The TRA has warned that 18 months after the launch of the campaign, owners of the mobile phone SIMs which were issued under their names will have to bear the consequences of any misuse of SIM cards issued to them, their family members or even friends.
Both Etisalat and du tackled this mission to inform their subscribers through six phases by sending SMSes to millions of subscribers asking them to update their personal data. If the subscribers fail to update the information within the specified period following the SMSes, the SIM card will be suspended and after another three months the number will be cancelled as well.
However, Al Ganem remarked that the number of subscribers who updated their data was very small and the load was too big on the operators’ outlet on the last day of the first phase.
“Most of the subscribers has failed to re-register their SIM card in the first phase because they were not informed properly and most of them were not aware about the importance of these procedures.”
“Moreover, Etisalat and du outlets faced a lot of pressure when subscribers rushed in during the last few days lining up for hours to finalise the procedures.”
Al Ganem remarked that TRA has informed the operators to facilitate procedures by investing all means to make the mission smoother.
“One of these requirements is to open online registration which should be in place soon as well as increase the counters of registration across the emirates,” he added.
