UAE nationals fed up of deleting unwanted commercial and promotional text messages on their mobile phones are in for good news: Telecommunications operators du and Etisalat have been told to provide subscribers with information on how to block such SMSes.

According to the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), it has asked the two telecommunications operators to provide required information to subscribers on how to block such text messages. The facility would be extended to mobile phone subscribers by June, a TRA official told the local Arabic newspaper Emarat El Youm.

In this connection, a pact was reached between the TRA and du and etisalat. The option to block promotional text messages would be made available based on the subscriber's request. However, text messages sent by banks would not be restricted by the move, as it is a service provided to update customers on their accounts, TRA Director General Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim said.

Also, Al Ghanim has ruled out the prospect of a third mobile operator in the country as of now. It is “premature” to discuss the prospect in view of the constraints of the current global economic crisis, he asserted.