After the deadline expired on Friday 13 June, telecom companies said that 40% of pre-paid mobile phone users still hadn’t approached their service providers to validate ownership of their phone lines. As a result the telecom companies were ordered to suspend the service. The telecom companies are now giving users an additional 90 days to register online or at any of the telecom company shops nationwide. The Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) issued Resolution 027-14 authorizing the telecom companies to give their customers an extra 90 days before the accounts are conclusively closed.
An estimated five million of seven million pre-paid phone lines have been confirmed, in compliance with Indotel Resolution 039-13. The measure is considered essential for national safety plans, as it has been established that anonymous phone lines are frequently used in crimes.
Eduardo Valcarcel, spokesman for the Dominican Telecom Companies Association (Adomtel) that represents the leading telecom providers estimates that 55 or 60% of clients had already validated their lines. He said that approximately three million users still needed to register.
He estimated that on average 200,000 people regularized their status and expects the process to be completed in few days. Valcarcel says it is not true that some five million phone lines were anonymous. “We know that organized crime is going to have activated mobiles and they are not going to have them in the name of the criminal,” commented the communications vice president for Orange telecom. He said the companies are giving their customers an extra 15 days before suspending the service.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2014/06/16/cinco-millones-usuarios-validaron-prepago
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/06/16/i658141_entre-validado-lneas-prepago.html