PRE-PAID PHONES CUT OFF ON MONDAY

All of you out there with a mobile phone (which really does mean all of you) have just two weeks to go before 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 move comes under a new law which came into effect in November 2007 as a consequence of the Madrid train bomb attacks on 11th March 2004, when the bombs were set off by pre-paid mobile phones. Registration has been obligatory since the law came into force, but 20 million such phones bought before that date are estimated to still be in use.

So far, 12.5 million people have registered their mobiles, 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.

It’s not difficult to do either as registration for each user can be done at one of their operator’s points of sale, where they must provide (surprise, surprise) either their DNI identity document, passport or foreigners’ residency papers. Businesses must provide their fiscal identification card.

*taken from THE LEADER newspaper