CyTA to introduce pre-pay system for mobile phones

UNEXPECTEDLY high mobile phone bills will be a thing of the past from next month, with the introduction of a pre-pay service. The telecommunications authority CyTA yesterday announced that from July 30, GSM mobile phone users will have a new payment choice, a pre-pay system called ‘Symphony’.

This new system involves no extra monthly subscription charge or written application.

Also, unlike the current monthly billing system, non-permanent residents will no longer have to pay the usual high deposit in order to become subscribers to the pre-pay service.

Symphony subscribers must have a CyTA-approved GSM mobile phone, and purchase a £40 Symphony kit from any CyTA outlet.

The kit includes a Symphony SIM card and a Time Renewal Card, on which the system is based, as well as directions on how to use the programme.

The Time Renewal Card provides £20 worth of call time to be used within 61 days. Additional Time Renewal Cards can then be purchased from CyTA offices and kiosks.

The pre-pay service will offer all the advantages of the usual service except that phones using the Symphony system cannot be used to make calls from outside Cyprus.

Symphony users will have to request itemised bills — currently provided free with the monthly telephone account — at an extra cost.

In an announcement yesterday, CyTA said that the service was particularly aimed at short-term visitors to the island and for foreigners living in Cyprus who might have difficulty paying the deposit.

It is also aimed at Cypriots who use their mobile phone rarely and for people who mainly accept calls rather than making them.

Further information can be obtained by calling CyTA customer services at 132.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.