UAE Telcos Suspend Three Million Mobile Subscriptions

Etisalat and du have suspended the services of around three million subscribers who were late in registering their SIM cards during the previous phase of the ‘My Number, My identity’ campaign, a senior Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) official said.

Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA director general, clarified that the suspension of a mobile number will bar the subscriber from making outgoing calls but allow access to incoming calls and text messages.

The suspension of services begins after repeated warnings from the TRA and telecom operators to register SIM cards before the allocated deadline.

The TRA also noted that the licensees – Etisalat and du – have begun to gradually cease the services of subscribers who have crossed the three-month suspension period.

The SIM registration campaign resulted in long queues and chaos during the previous stages, forcing telecom operators to introduce third and online party registration to expedite the process.

Al Ghanim urged Etisalat and du to further increase the number of registration outlets and make e-registration available to customers.

Companies in the UAE can also arrange with Etisalat and du to register employees within the workplace, he said.

The campaign was launched by the TRA last year to protect subscribers from the misuse of SIM cards and confidentiality infringement problems.

The authority set a timeframe of 18 months for all the mobile phone users in the country to complete registration of their SIM cards. The campaign was divided into six stages, and is currently in its fifth phase. The last two phases are estimated to target around four million subscribers, the TRA said.