Regulator clamps down on fake mobile phones

Abu Dhabi: UAE telcommunication service providers etisalat and du will suspend all services to mobile phone subscribers who are using counterfeit handsets as of January 1, it was announced at a news conference here yesterday.

"Users of fake devices will be imminently contacted by their service providers and all phones that are not type approved will be disconnected from all telecom services, including calls, texts and the internet," said the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in a statement.

"We want the UAE to be clean of fake handsets — the operators have been told," TRA Director-General Mohammad Nasser Al Ganem told reporters.

Al Ganem said as many as 70,000 fake handsets had been identified by the two telecom service providers, which fall short on minimum quality standards.

Health hazard

He said fake handsets are hazardous to consumer health and could pose multiple problems for users.

"It can have a battery which could be explosive. Also, their emissions are not designed to safety limits and therefore are harmful to the users," said Al Ganem.

He said the TRA had been checking mobile phone shops for fake handsets, which have been entering the UAE market from all parts of the world.

"Every handset has a unique number and can be identified by the GSM Association. [The] network can identify a fake handset from an original handset," he said.

Al Ganem said the owners of fake mobile phones would be alerted by their respective service providers via SMS to change their handsets.

Nasser Bin Obood, etisalat's acting chief executive officer, said the operator's customers using a counterfeit device with a fake International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number will receive an SMS message notifying them of this. "They will be requested to replace it with a genuine handset before the cut-off date."

"We need to support the UAE's objective in being a country which supports intellectual property rights," Bin Obood added.

Al Ganem said UAE telecommunication laws prohibit the use, sale, purchase, distribution and promotion of fake mobile devices, and that genuine mobile phones coming into the country for sale now either carry a TRA stamp, serial number and approval number on the box containing the device or there is a TRA label inside the device.

"Those involved in the sale of fake mobile phones will be given a notice and a fine, while in some cases licences could be withheld as a consequence of regulations not being met," he added.

Bin Obood and du's Chief Executive Othman Sultan said at the news conference both companies were working on a plan under which genuine handsets could be provided to their subscribers at special prices. They didn't elaborate.