Bahrain TRA marks the end of the prepaid registration project

The requirement to update the registration information of all prepaid subscribers was initiated by TRA through its Regulation No. 2 of 2008.

During the six months of the open registration period, customers with missing registration details, including name, CPR Number, or address, were repeatedly invited to register through their operators. TRA, Batelco, and Zain collectively launched a massive awareness campaign in order to minimize the number of customers being disconnected for lack of registration information.

"TRA in close coordination with its advertising agency organized a significant publicity campaign that included billboard, radio announcements and newspaper advertisements. We closely tracked progress with operators and gauged the effectiveness of our outreach programmes. We were pleased to find a significant response from the public to the registration programme"

said TRA's Director of Communications & Consumer Affairs, Ms. Dana Chehab.

"Now that all active mobile customers are registered, customers can benefit from a number of advantages, such as readiness for number portability, being able to trace their phones when lost or stolen, as well as assisting in tracing prank calls and invasive short messages." Said TRA's General Director, Mr. Alan Horne.

TRA's ICT Operations Manager, Mr. Ahmed Aldoseri explained that a significant number of customers have had to be disconnected: "We are pleased to see that over three quarters of a million registrations were made in the six month period, leaving tens of thousands of customers, representing about 5% of the total mobile base, having to be disconnected starting midnight on 31st March 2009".

The disconnected subscribers may still be able to use their mobile phones for calling emergency services, but will be required to visit operator outlets and customer service centers to reconnect their phones - provided that their SIM cards have not expired due to credit. Where registration information collected is subsequently found to be in error then the operators will disconnected the line pending verification of customer details.