PAY-AS-YOU-GO mobile phone users who still have not registered with their network providers will lose their number on Monday.

But they will be able to reactivate these numbers and recover their lines if they provide their network operators with their personal details within six months.

This was announced today by minister for the interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.

Pay-as-you-go mobile owners were given two years to register with shops selling phones on their network.

The move was aimed at preventing terrorists and organised criminal gangs from being untraceable by using pay-as-you-go mobiles.

Now, anyone who buys a new phone of this type will automatically be registered, and anyone who has not registered their previous number will lose it today.

But Rubalcaba says they have given another six months for owners to get their numbers and their phones back by calling their network provider in order to give the ‘least-informed members of society, such as the young and the elderly’ the chance to resolve their problem of being excommunicated by failing to register.