AFTER midnight on Sunday lines for pay-as-you-go mobile phones will be automatically deactivated if their owners have previously failed to register their details with their operators.

The phone companies have calculated that means that some three million lines will be disconnected and out of use come Monday.

The measure comes as a result of the Madrid train bombings in 2004 where anonymous pre-paid phones were used to set off the explosives, but experts doubt that the measure will be effective, given the existence of wide scale black market in numbers and the possibility to buy an anonymous number outside the country.

The Law for the Conservation of Data in Electronic Communications came into effect in Spain two years ago and obliges the phone companies to keep all the data on the destination and origin of calls, as well as the identity of all the people implicated in the communication.

To date, 12.5 million people have registered their details, but some 8 million have yet to do so and could find themselves automatically cut off if they fail to register on or before the deadline of 8th November. Operators are then legally obliged to deactivate any which remain unidentified.

Registration for each user is at one of their operator’s points of sale, where they must provide either their DNI identity document, passport or foreigners’ residency papers. Businesses must provide their fiscal identification card.

Redtel, which represents the phone companies in Spain had asked for the phone numbers to be merely suspended, so that they could be re-activated when the owner of the line identifies him or herself, but the Government has rejected the idea, insisting in a complete removal of the number from service.

That decision has been criticised by the FACUA consumers group among others, and notes that any outstanding balance on the pre-paid cards will also be lost.

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Deadline Approaches To Register Your Pre-Paid Mobile Phone In Spain
Friday, 06 November 2009
AFTER midnight on Sunday lines for pay-as-you-go mobile phones will be automatically deactivated if their owners have previously failed to...

© 2012 - Secret Andalucia - Guadiaro Valley, near Ronda

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