BAHRAIN: There are still hundreds of thousands of unregistered prepaid mobile users in Bahrain despite the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) deadline to get registered expiring on Dec. 31.
TRA General Director Alan Horne said that out of an estimated 700,000 prepaid mobile users barely 50 percent were registered at the end December. “It could have been massive shock to the economy and to the telecom system of the country by taking such a big number of mobiles off the network at the expiry of the deadline,” said Horne.
“Keeping in view the gravity of the issue and requests from Batelco and Zain, TRA has agreed to extend the date to March 31,” he added.
TRA took the step of making registration compulsory to support public safety and discourage attempts to exploit telecommunications networks for illicit purposes. “It is very important for users of mobile services to understand the importance of complying with the regulation and to take necessary actions to register their details, if they wish to continue using their existing prepaid mobile phone number,” said Horne.
“TRA has decided to extend the deadline for registration of the personal details of existing prepaid mobile users to March 31. This decision was based on the fact that despite the active publicity campaign undertaken by TRA and operators, there still remain a significant number of unregistered subscribers,” he said.
“There will be no further extension in date after the end of March. This is an absolute decision and the mobile operators will disconnect all unregistered prepaid mobiles,” he added.
