Du, the United Arab Emirates’ second national telecoms operator, has announced that it has extended the SIM re-registration deadline for the first batch of its mobile customers from 16 October 2012 to 17 January 2013. At the same time, the second set of subscribers are now being notified by SMS to update their details, also by 17 January. As reported by CommsUpdate earlier this week, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) confirmed the extension of the deadline for the first phase of its ‘My Number, My Identity’ SIM re-registration campaign, following on from an announcement by Du’s rival Etisalat that it would give its customers more time to update their details. The TRA said its decision to extend the timeframe for the initial stage of the process had been prompted by the inability of Etisalat and Du ‘to provide smooth mechanisms to facilitate, accelerate and stimulate subscribers to update their data.’ Around 1.5 million mobile phone subscribers of Du, and a further 1.5 million customers of Etisalat, were given until 16 October to register their details under the first of six three-month phases of the re-registration campaign. ‘My Number, My Identity’ was unveiled in June 2012 and launched the following month, and requires subscribers to update their personal data and ensure that their SIM cards are registered under their name.
In other news, Etisalat’s senior vice-president for Information and Communication Technology, Abdullah Hashim, has told the Khaleej Times that the operator is set to launch its ‘Cloud Computing Solutions’ service in the UAE by the end of the year. The offering will be extended to Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Egypt and Pakistan in 2013, he added.