JEDDAH: The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) on Tuesday started disconnecting its services to the first batch of mobile numbers that have not fulfilled the documentation obligation.

The move comes as part of the plan to track down unregistered SIMs, in accordance with the decision of the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

Faisal Al-Saber, vice president of STC—sales, had issued a warning on his Twitter account on Monday that customers who received a text message six days ago and did not respond would face action, local media reported. He urged all the subscribers to update their data to avoid disconnection.

A lot of people have bought SIMs in the black market and have failed to transfer them into their names. This campaign against unregistered SIMs is different from the one that will soon be launched against those who have registered SIMs but not given their fingerprints.