A tug of war between the United Arab Emirates’ two telecommunications companies and their regulator over sim card security is baffling customers and doing little to enhance the image of a growing and internationally ambitious industry.
Fears are growing that the state-controlled operators might start cutting off customers who don’t re-register their sim cards, hobbling communications and business in a country that is a leading oil producer and an important hub for world trade.
In the latest twist in a saga that began in June, the government Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said it was extending a deadline of early 2014 for the more than 12.8m mobile phone sim cards in national circulation to be re-registered. The regulator criticised the telecoms operators, Etisalat and du, for not doing more to aid the process – although it gave no details of a new cut-off date, issuing only a muddled edict whose lack of clarity seems to sum up the entire re-registration venture to date.
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