The new regulation for recharging mobile phones has been postponed to Sept. 28, the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) announced yesterday. According to the new regulation, a user will need to key in his ID number along with the prepaid coupon number in order to top up cell phone credit or transfer credit to another user. The measure was taken to prevent the illegal use of cell phones. The regulation, originally to be in effect from July 31 was postponed by the CITC after Saudi telecom firms requested an extension to give time for their more than 10 million customers to update their information. Abdullah Al-Dharrab, governor of CITC, said fines of SR 5 million would be imposed on companies which sell SIM cards to people without recording their ID information. Telecom companies estimate the number of cell phone SIM cards previously issued without ID or under fake names to be more than 12 million. Arab News
