If you live in Fiji and haven't registered your wireline or your mobile phone under the government's newly minted Telephone Services Decree, you might find out you can't make any calls.
This week Telecom Fiji began disconnecting those subscribers that did not register their wireline POTS or mobile phones under the Telephone Services Decree.
Rohan Mail, Telecom Fiji's CEO, said that while 90 percent of its customers registered their devices, it began shutting off services on customers that did not register on September 23. Had the telco waited, it would have been fined for every unregistered user it did not turn off of its network.
As reported in Fiji Village, the telephone services decree was enacted to thwart the emergence of prank calls to emergency numbers and secure telephone use. Any subscriber that violates the rules could be subject to fines or even jail time, while service providers that don't terminate services on time could face up to a FJD200,000 ($106,620) fine.
Thus far, Telecom Fiji is the only provider to talk about its work to comply with the government mandate, while its competitors Vodafone Fiji, Digicel and Inkk Mobile have yet to reveal their plans.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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