Dubai: Etisalat is going to charge Dh25 as late payment fees from next month if a subscriber does not pay the bill in full before the due date.
Some customers have received SMSs and emails from etisalat's customer care on Wednesday.
An etisalat customer care representative said the late-payment fee will be applicable from December onwards and this is the first time the operator is going to charge a customer for non-payment.
Etisalat's official spokesperson later confimed the decision.
“Usually, the due date for a landline bill is 15th of every month and if a customer is not paying by the due date, he/she will attract a late payment charge,” etisalat said.
The late payment charges are applicable both to the landline as well as mobile.
Sukhdev Singh, associate vice-president at market research and analysis services provider AMRB, told Gulf News, that this is something that is not common in the region.
“It is a common factor in the telecoms sector in other parts of the world. Given the UAE has evolved, telecom operators in the UAE have been very flexible in terms of payments,” he said.
However, he said that etisalat has the right to do so and it is high time. The cost of unpaid bills is a burden on the telecom operators and the consumers will take some time, maybe a quarter, to adjust.
“I expect operators to be flexible till customers get used to it as it is not a norm in the region,” he said.
A du spokesperson said that they are not going to charge late payment fees.
Another industry expert said that with the value-added tax also going to impact a customer from January, this [late-payment fee] will add an additional burden on a customer.
