One million Etisalat subs prompted to update details

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) has warned that nearly one million mobile subscribers could face disconnection if they fail to re-register their SIM cards by the first phase deadline of 16 October 2012. Emirates 24/7 cites a statement from Etisalat, as reported in Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum, as saying that out of the 1.5 million Etisalat cellular customers included in the first stage of the registration process only 500,000 had so far updated their details. The October deadline is the first of six three-month phases of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s (TRA’s) SIM registration campaign, known as ‘My Number, My Identity’, which was unveiled in June 2012 and launched the following month. Etisalat has sent text messages to the initial 1.5 million subscribers asking them to update their personal data and ensure that their SIM cards are registered under their name, while the country’s other mobile operator Du, has also notified its initial set of 1.5 million mobile customers. ‘We will send a final message warning them against failing to register their SIM cards…Etisalat will then disconnect their services…it also has the right to re-sell those numbers to other customers after the disconnection,’ the statement from Etisalat said.