UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) issued a directive in June 2016 ordering telecom operators Etisalat and du to put a ceiling, or hard cap, on their respective mobile data bundles in a bid to protect consumers from unwittingly incurring disproportionately higher additional charges. du bill shock

The directive serves as a safety net measure to protect mobile roaming data subscribers from what the TRA calls ‘bill shock.’

“Consumers may not be aware of the actual costs associated with such mobile data usage and this could lead to ‘bill shock.’ We aim to address the issue once and for all through this new directive,” Al Mansoori added.   

According to the TRA’s directive, operators must limit the supply of mobile data to the size of the bundle. Once the bundle is exhausted, they cannot supply any further mobile data unless we, the consumers, give express consent.

Despite this rule, mobile phone customers are returning to the UAE after the holidays to find they have been left with large international roaming charges for what they claim is only a few minutes of use.

Taking to social media to express shock over what they claim is both unfair and unexplained charges, residents said their bills have run into the tens of thousands of dirhams in some cases.

Georgina Evans, 25, arrived back in the UAE on Sunday night after a five-day trip to the UK to discover du had cut her phone off as the result of a Dh30,000 bill.

After phoning du to challenge the charge, she was initially told she could not raise an official complaint until her next bill was generated. du bill shock

Du has since canceled the charge, blaming it on an online glitch in a phone call, she said.