New UAE telecom contract cancellation fees will start this week

New UAE telecom contract cancellation fees were drawn up in response to customer complaints…

Are you an Etisalat or du customer and planning on switching your telecom service provider, changing an existing package, or leaving the UAE?

Well, we’d hold off until Wednesday January 1, 2020 if we were you as new telecom cancellation regulations are coming into effect, meaning you’ll no longer face hefty early cancellation charges (that can add up to a year).

The news was announced back in March 2019, but a reminder was tweeted out by The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates (TRA).

As of 1 January 2020
You won’t have to pay for more than a month’s rental charges when you prematurely exit your contract with the service provider @etisalat @dutweets pic.twitter.com/6TCPE791m5

— هيئة تنظيم الاتصالات (@TheUAETRA) December 24, 2019

The tweet clearly states that come the New Year, if you choose to exit your contract prematurely, you won’t have to pay more than a month’s rental charges.

How will the new UAE telecom contract cancellation fees affect you?

Previously, customers were charged the total remaining sum due for the length of the contract. In some cases, customers had to pay up to 11 months in fees. The amendment was made in response to customer complaints regarding the hefty charges.

If your contract was with Etisalat, this meant that you would have had to pay Dhs50 or Dhs100 times the numbers of months remaining in the contract (depending on the package). This could have easily racked up to a Dhs1100. Du customers would have had to pay a much larger sum depending on how long their contract was and on the monthly package cost.

The change will not only affect new mobile contracts for Etisalat and du, but existing contracts as well. The low cancellation fees also gives users the freedom to switch plans or services according to their requirements.