The General Authority for Regulating the Telecommunications Sector, TRA, announced the launch of ‘Secure your Mobile’, a first of its kind nationwide initiative to protect mobile phones in the UAE, in collaboration with Etisalat and du.
Through this initiative, TRA aims to reduce the number of lost or stolen devices by enabling owners to block their devices across the UAE as soon as they are successfully reported. Any lost or stolen device can now be reported to Etisalat or du and within 48 hours, the phone will be blocked in both Etisalat’s and du’s mobile networks at no additional cost and no calls or messages can be originated from or received by the reported mobile device.
With the UAE having the highest consumers of smart devices, we understand how valuable smart devices have become to people in UAE who nowadays use their devices as a primary means of computing. Therefore, it is critical we help protect our residents by implementing systems with an easy mechanism to enable users to block stolen or lost mobile devices immediately after reporting them. Our main objective from this campaign is to protect our consumer’s mobile devices by limiting the chances of getting them stolen or misused, saidSaif bin Ghelaita, Director Technology Development Affairs, TRA.
Service providers will also provide a ‘Public Enquiry Service’ to enquire about the blocking status of any device. Users can send an SMS and get a response from the system with the status of that device (blocked or active). To unblock a device, customers need to contact their service provider and answer some security questions.
The TRA will be coordinating with law enforcement agencies to allow for the return of lost or stolen mobile devices to their rightful owners.
Source: WAM
