Seventy percent of requests to switch mobile phone operators in the UAE have been rejected by the country’s regulator, it was announced on Wednesday
While the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said 55,555 mobile users had successfully switched between telcos Etisalat and du so far, this was out of a total of more than 190,000 requests.
A total of 134,222 applications were rejected, including applications that have been resubmitted more than once by the same owner of the mobile number, the TRA said in a statement.
It added that the reasons for rejection focused on the mismatch of subscriber’s name with the applicant name, or non-completion of a transfer request numbers due to incomplete application forms or the lack of clear identification.
The TRA has received several complaints from subscribers regarding the rejection of their MNP applications and is working on verifying many of these cases with the licensees.
The regulator said it will continue to monitor the MNP process along with the accredited service providers in the UAE, and take all necessary actions whenever the need arises.
TRA previously requested both Etisalat and du to remove some of their ad campaigns due to them not complying with the regulatory framework.
The TRA also stressed that subscribers should be aware of their obligations and responsibility outlined in the contracts signed with the licensee before submitting any MNP requests.
The main challenges seen to date include non-compliance with licensees to deliver documentation for the service and failure to complete all the information that will help complete the application process including legibility of attachments and photocopies.
The implementation process of the service that enables the switch from one provider to another whilst keeping their original phone number reached 30 percent to May 18, the TRA said.
The official launch of the mobile number portability (MNP) service in December.
The TRA said the MNP services is part of plans to increase competition within the ICT market in the UAE.
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