The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority confiscates over 27,600 unauthorized devices as part of its extensive regulatory campaigns

Mobilk - Based on the TRA’s policy which aims at protecting the telecommunications market in the UAE from the use of unsupported telecommunication devices which are non-compliant with the specifications, the TRA has succeeded, through its ongoing pursuit and the efforts of the inspection teams, to carry out the widest and largest campaign of seizures resulting in the confiscation of over 27,600 devices and handing them to the Economic Department in Dubai.

 

Engineer Ahmad Al Shamsi, Director of Type Approval in the TRA, asserted that the TRA is moving forward in the regulatory campaigns to reduce the increasing number of unauthorized telecommunication devices. This is achieved by refining the capacities and developing the skills of inspectors through training courses; hence, controlling the telecommunications market in the country through developing effective inspection and education programs along with on ground presence of inspection teams. The campaigns carried out by the TRA during the first half of the year resulted in the confiscation of over 35,000 sets including multiple and different types of unauthorized devices. In addition, Al Shamsi emphasized on the seriousness of the spread of such devices in the telecommunications market since technical problems may disrupt the telecommunication networks causing, for example, frequency interference affecting the telecommunication services’ subscribers.

 

In this regard, H.E. Majid Sultan Al Mesmar, Deputy Director General of the telecommunications sector in the TRA, noted the prominent role played by the strategic partners of the TRA in its support for the formation of a competitive digital regulatory environment, which is safe, sustainable and a global leader in the telecommunications and information technology sectors within the UAE. In the past two years, the TRA promoted frameworks of close coordination and joint efforts with strategic partners, led by local economic departments in all of the Emirates with the objective of consumer protection in the first place where the TRA is intending, in cooperation with them, to carry out regulatory campaigns in the area of telecommunications gadget sales and take action to prevent the spread and use of unauthorized devices through the adoption of standard and international specifications for the registration of local and international manufacturers, licensed operators, and companies importing telecommunications devices. This is in addition to issuing warnings or imposing fines that may reach in some cases to license suspension.